Halo Fanon:Survival of the Fittest/Season 1

Contents

Pilot Episode: So Begins...

Hank opened his eyes, light bounced off the shiny walls of the round room, causing the SPARTAN to blink. The room was packed with People, Grunts, Elites, Brutes, Monitors as well as a flood, a prophet and some odd looking creatures, that Hank was too dazed to recognize. Hank pushed himself off the floor, as did many of the others that were packed into the room. Several of them searched for their weapons, amour, equipment, only to find it all gone. One of the Monitors, with a greenish hue hovered towards the ceiling, as a glowing orb descended, having materialized, seemingly out of the air. Several of the Brutes growled, as the crowd slowly pushed back away from the ball of Blue light.

“Many Joyful Salutations….. Welcome to my world.” The orbs words echoed in a low monotone voice around the room.

Private Saunders, a small, young marine shouted over the noise of the crowd towards this orb, “What do you want! Why are we here! We want answers!”, the words were followed by a rumble of agreement from the mob, as they stared intently at this glowing orb. A leathery creature with wings took to the air, causing the generated wind to unbalance several of the people around it, the other Monitors followed suit, going higher to get a better look.

“I have recreated you all here, for a purpose I cannot yet discuss with any of you. But I can discuss with you what you shall be doing here, if you’d like…”

The group muttered amongst itself, by now the majority of the Brutes had grouped away from the Elites, who had also moved away from the Humans.

“We have to find out what’s going on.”
“What if we’re stuck here?”
“I don’t like the looks of this…”
“What does it mean recreated?”
“What if it wants to kill us?”

One of the Elites pushed a grunt out of its way as he approached the Orb, “Tell us what you have in mind for us.”

“You are among the greatest combatants in the Galaxy, you are the strong, the fit, and I am in need....” The orb seemed to pause, “I have removed you from your time and space, you no longer need fear dying, you are already dead, that is why I brought you all here, to have another shot at life, eternal life.”

The crowd broke into roars and yells, several of them, still until now, leaped up in shock. Dead already?Eternal Life. A hooded figure, who had been sitting in the shadows until now yelled, “How can we claim this?”

“It is simple, you must prove yourself. Prove yourself as the best, as only the best is worthy. I have created an elaborate network….”, again the Orb paused, “an Island, it is roughly five kilometers by three, complete with several types of terrain.”

A Grunt grabbed hold of the green monitor, which pulled it towards the Blue Ball, “Island? What for?”

“It is for you to do what you have done in your previous lives. For battle, as I stated, only the strong are worthy, only the best will claim eternal life, I have recreated each of your personal equipment and weapons, which you will have when you are transferred to this Island. Every day at least five of you must die, or no one will win, and you will all be transferred to the state of emptiness from which I brought you.”

Hank’s eyes darted to the orb, before surveying the others in the room, they were all masters of their fields, they were among the best the Galaxy had to offer, and it made him shudder that’d they’d have to kill each other, merely from the whim of something.

Another man spoke Hanks mind, Zeta 1 stood up and yelled, “So, you want us to kill each other?”

“Precisely”

A huge white Brute, stared down at the bald man next to him, “Hmph, may as well get started.” The Brute muttered, as he went to grab the man’s face, only to fall to the ground shaking.

“I have made several adjustments to all of you, namely there is now a device located in your heads, connecting to your brains, whilst here in this room, there is to be no violence, or that will happen. Also if five people aren’t killed each day, then you will all die as the device will release enough electricity to power a colony planet, into your brain, effectively killing you.”

The bald guy stood over the Brute as he slowly got to his feet, “Ha, just you try it, walking carpet, I’ll skin you alive and use you as a pillow.” The Brute replied with a growl, and raised a hand in a fist, before putting it back.

Hank, looked through the crowd and, spotted a somewhat familiar face in the crowds, he rushed over, “SPARTAN I?”

Dean Jackson replied with an affirmative.

“Same, I need a hand with something, I think I no a way out of this, at the moment I’s are all that I really trust…”

Dean jerked, “What? Way out?”, SPARTAN-G023 turned to the sound, and watched as Dean was grabbed by Hank, who pulled him down, “Damn it man, keep it quite, I don’t want everyone rushing in on this. Meet up with me, centre of the Island.”

The orb again spoke, its voice ringing off the walls, “You have five minutes until we begin.”

Episode 1:Start Game

SPARTAN-077 fumbled around on the ground, his hands meeting the handle of his battle rifle. Pulling himself up using the trunk of a tree, the Spartan observed his surroundings. Jungle…Great… He checked his amour and weapons, before walking towards a group of building that stood out in the distance.

Dean, sprinted through the maze like group of buildings, he could still hear that thing following him. Dean turned, to see his pursuer no where in sight, and gracefully ran several steps up the side of a wall, crawling into an open window. The winged hybrid creature ran by below, as Dean looked on from above, before turning to see a grunt, its plasma pistol raised at the SPARTAN I’s head.

Lokstok watched as the winged hybrid known as Nogard turned the corner around the building, and charged the large Brute. Pulling back his arms, the Brute unleashed a mighty swing from his Gravity Hammer, cracking the creature’s neck, it flipped from the blow and landed heavily onto the ground. The white Brute cracked its knuckles before walking into the building next to him.

The grunt turned at the sound of a thud, giving Dean time to hit the Pistol out of it’s hands as a large white Brute came through the doorway, it heaved it’s hammer, crushing the grunt’s head, before turning it’s attention to Dean, who proceeded to jump out the window he came from.

SPARTAN-G023 got up from his seat on a tree branch in the Jungles, and remembered what Dean and Hank had said, “I think I know a way out” “Centre of Island”. And so the SPARTAN sprinted towards what he deemed to be the centre.

Hank was also sprinting towards the centre, when he noticed Nogard clicking his neck back into place as he got to his feet. Hank drew his Kantana, as an already angry Nogard spread it’s wings, proppelling himself forwards at great speeds at Hank, who sliced the creatures chest, only for it to quickly regenerate to it’s former state, quickly folding it’s wings to a spike like form and jamming them into Hanks shoulders, pulling him off the ground. Hank kicked the creature in the face, proceeding to flip his body on the end of its wings, enough for his sword to reach one, cutting it off. The creature screeched, but quickly turned it's attention back to Hank. The SPARTAN I attempted to plunge his kantana into the creatures head, only to be thrown to the side by one of its outstretched wings. Hank rolled as it continuously hacked at him, chipping up chunks of the concrete floor. Hanks glasses fell, as he flipped himself back up and ran from the creature, before doubling back on a slightly confused Nogard, throwing his sword into it’s chest, jumping onto it, hands first, pulling it out still in midair, and as the forward flip off the sword reached 180, it collided with Nogards skull, cracking it, and leaving it twitching on the ground. Hank quickly pulled his Kantana back, wiped it, and sprinted to his rendezvous point with Dean.

Zeta 3 and 6 slid down the side of the snowy mountain, spotting Kain Furrey, Zeta 1, at the bottom. “Hey sir!” Michael shouted down, causing the squad leader to whirl around, aiming his rifle, before realizing who he was aiming at. “Where are the others?” he asked as they reached the bottom, only for Laura to reply, “Haven’t seen ‘em”. Kain grunted, and the trio walked into the jungle.

Andrew Peters burst out of the Jungle, and ran into what looked like a desert. The leader of Dragon Squad stumbled in this terrain, and he turned to face his pursuer, Icsa 'Fniasee, Sangheli super soldier. Peters shot a burst from his Rifle, which impacted upon the Elites shield, draining it steadily, but not fast enough, as it plunged it’s sword through Peters head, staining the sand around him red. Only to raise his head and see a Spartan and Marine also emerging from the forest, Isca pulled out his mauler and fired, with only few shots hitting the spartan, who pulled off a similar feat of bad aim, as the marine finished off the Elites shield, then the Elite, his body collapsing on top of Andrews. Steve shook the SPARTAN, “Come on, we’d better keep moving…”

Dean ran into a small battle and watched as the almost Sumo-like Weber fired his rocket launcher, the rocket twirled, with a Brute pushing his Elite opponent into its path, only for him to flip out of the way. Dean jumped, and the rocket impacted the building behind him, throwing Dean several metres further. Rifle ready, he shot Weber in the head from a distance, his head virtually exploding as he lost his life. A Lupin sprinted towards the Spartan I from behind, before being gunned down by a flurry of bullets from 077, “Hey, you look like you might need a hand marine...”

“It’s sir to you, boy, and I could have taken care of that myself.”

“Hey, I just saved you…now we can work together on this…”

Dean sniffled, and pulled 077’s head next to his, “Fine…there’s a way out…”

They watched as Bergenond, the elite, cut the Brute in half with his energy sword, before he spotted the two together, noting himself as outnumbered he fled.

The Athenian finally reached the concrete around the buildings after spending so long in the desert. The hooded figure shook off what little sand was still on him, before spotting Zetas 1, 3 and 6 walk out of the forest, they had backs to each other, and immediately spotted the Athenian. They all turned and fired on him, as he dived back for the sand. He in turn shot a ball of fire, roughly the size of a basket ball at them, and it engulfed one of the Zeta’s head. Michael fell dead, his head several charred chunks of meat on a blacked skull. The other two looked in shock at their dead comrade, giving the Athenian time to fire a quick succession of smaller Fireballs. Kain sprinted back into the Jungle, the fire impacting upon the concrete behind, as Laura tried to follow suit, only for one of the flames to impact upon her feet, she tripped landing face first on the concrete, she turned to see the hooded figure unleash her last sight, a huge ball of fire.

Eaite 'Oodatee fired his needler at the oncoming, toga clad flood. The shots dug into chunks of already decayed skin, as it continued its charge wildly flailing its arms. Eaite nimbly dodged the creature, which continued its wild charge deeper into the jungle, only for it to be thrown past Eaite, through the dense forests out of sight by an unseen force. Then a roar was heard, the tree branches around the Eaite shook, as a large humanoid bulk of muscle, roughly 11 feet, barely contained in a skeletal metal suit ran through the forest, it noticed Eaite who shot it twice before sprinting, the creature gave chase, and the Elite occasionally firing a volley of needles at the creature, though it’s wounds quickly healed. G-23 stepped out of the forest in front of Eaite, who threw him back towards the monstrous creature, who stopped in it's tracks and picked the SPARTAN up, and in a single flex, it started to crush his Mjolnir armour. The Spartan grasped for breath, as he attempted to kick the creature, when a shot was heard, and it dropped him.

“Chow?” the Spartan wheezed, as he lay on the floor, a blurry vision of his ally, running into the forest, with the creature in pursuit still in his mind.

Ldfo 'Jaolee approached the group of corpses, one of them familiar, Ah, old friend Harvargus, seems you finally met with fate…. He thought as he walked over the two parts of the Brutes body. The top half let out a wheeze, causing the Elite to stop. Ldfo turned, and crouched down beside his old rival, “Rest easy, I take no pleasure in doing what I must…” The Elite stood back up, and shot the Brute in his head with his Carbine, it’s blood splattering over the Elite.

Vee London, the Prophet Of Courtesy and SPARTAN-064 stood in a Mexican stand off, their weapons aimed at each other, waiting for one to shoot first. Sweat gathered on Vee’s face, as the Prophet twitched slightly. They waited, as several minutes passed. The Prophet fired at the Spartan, whose shield absorbed the plasma, as he fired on Vee, who leapt behind the prophet, kicking his gun from his hands, she propelled herself into a handstand and cracked his long neck with her legs as the Spartan emptied a clip into his body. Vee let the Prophets body fall on her and fired from the cover it presented, the Spartan crouched onto his knees as the bullets impacted upon his amour, before one of his shots finally pierced through both the prophet and the woman under, killing her. 64 panted, as he sat down, they had been fighting in a park like area, in surrounded by buildings, after taking in his surroundings he heard footsteps, as from both his left and right figures appeared. Spartan 77 with Dean approached the bodies, as did Hank from the other end of the Park, they then turned and faced 64, who stammered out an “uh…hey?”

“Why’s he here,” Hank said pointing at 77, who replied with a “Saved your bud here..” and received a soft punch from Dean.

“I see…and what should we do with this one?” Hank said, pointing down at 64, who stared up at the three, under his helmet a somewhat astonished face looked on.

“May as well let him come, he’s a Spartan, seem to have done pretty well…” Dean replied pointing at the corpses.

“Uh….sure…I’ll come….what is it? A way out?” 64 asked, his voice now full of an emotion closer to glee.

Episode 2: Stupidity, Betrayal and Slaughter

Kain ran through the forest, afraid he was being followed by the hooded flame throwing being. Kain stumbled upon the beach, where a familiar friend noticed him, and waved him over. “Kain! Kain over here!” Melissa, Zeta 2, shouted from the sand. Kain leapt down the small cliff, keeping the sand from the trees, and ran to Melissa, “Melissa you…You’re ok, right?” He said, as he clutched her. She replied that she was fine, and he loosened his arms from around her. “Do you know where the others are?” He asked her, afraid of her response.

“We have three more of the team in the cave you just jumped over,” Melissa said, pointing at a large crack in the small cliff, “Have you seen Mike or Laura?”

Kain tried not to think about it, and allowed Melissa to take him into the cave, where he saw the rest of Zeta squad sitting on rocks, talking and preparing their weapons.

Jones Kodwell sat around his fire, attempting to keep himself warm, Anh Ng lay asleep on the ground behind him, as the darkness of night descended in the forests. Jones looked up from the fire at the sound of branches rustling, to see his three companions, coming back from a trek to attempt to make a rough map of the Island. Amy Black’s jaw dropped as she neared the flame, before she punched the marine, and attempted to put out the fire, “Stupid! Stupid!” She shouted, as a baffled Jones rubbed his bruise, “What?” he stammered, only for his companions to glare at him. Jose’s speech was slightly muffled, but audible behind his mask, “You Idiot, anyone could have seen that light, and now they’d know where we are!”

Nogard flew over the forest, his skull still slowly stitching itself together, he could still smell the smoke lingering in the air. Rasputin Volveneuk zoomed his goggles in from his perch in a high tree branch, on where he’d seen the light of a fire, and started his trek. Milisia Roder attached her scope to her rifle, and took aim at the same area, where she could now view a small group of people.

Hank swore, he hadn’t thought this far into his plans. “I reckon that orb thing, is an AI, a program…”

64 got up, from his lying position a few meters away, “Program? So this is all simulated?”

“Yea… We may kind of have to reach the edge of the simulated program…. And I don’t know how far away that is….”

The others stared at him, somewhat baffled, before 77 raised his voice, “Ok, so we’re going to need to make a boat… We’d best head out of here to, the centre and city seems to have an awful lot of people around…”

Kinoshi ran back into the forest, hoping the hooded figure hadn’t seen her. She pulled out her large pistols, and took aim. She fired a round, that impacted onto his armour, a drop of blood made it’s way down his black cloak, still upright he turned to face the Astuto, raising a hand, a ball of flame sped towards her, that she nimbly dodged. Kinoshi turned to escape, to see her path blocked by spreading flame. She ran at the Athenian, her guns blaring, before taking a fireball to the gut, she whinced as it burnt through her exoskeleton suit, as attempted to slash her opponent with her claws. The Athenian ducked, and fired another ball of flame into her now exposed skin. The Astuto screamed, as flesh seared off. She stabbed the Athenian in the shoulder, before retreating, leaping through the wall of flame, which continued to spread through the forest.

Chow slid inside an old decayed tree, partly eaten by termites. Chow attempted to remain as quite as possible as the hulking Test Subject ran by. Chow slowly put his head out to look for it, only to see it standing just a few meters away, completely still. It’s nose was pointed high in the air, and it was sniffing heavily, it turned and ran pass Chow again, who, slightly bemused, tried to look for what had frightened it away. In the distance he could see light, smoke, fire, and it was coming closer. Chow swore as he pulled himself out of the inside of the tree, and ran in the Subjects footprints.

Milisia fired into the group, with one falling dead, the bullet having passed straight through his head. She fired again, as Amy, pulled a waking Anh to cover.

Jones leapt back, into the darkness of the forest, here he found it difficult to see, something that Rasputin with his high-tech goggles didn’t find a problem. Jones realized to late, as he heard the slight crackling sound, as the Russian activated his Energy Machete. He stabbed Kodwell in back of the leg, his machete passing through to his kneecap. The soldier screamed in pain, as he fell to the ground. He fumbled for his weapon, but wasn’t fast enough, as Rasputin lobbed off his arm, he then grabbed him by his hair, pulling back his head, then putting him in something of a headlock. Rasputin put his Energy Machete to the Soldiers forehead, and proceeded to scalp the still living corporal, smiling as the soldier squirmed, Jones own blood now flowing, down his face.

Nogard landed on the fire place, and Milisia swore at the sight of the creature, she fired a shot into it’s head, causing the creature to flip onto it’s back, before it got back up, the bullet being pushed out of it’s head by it’s healing factor. Nogard spread it’s wings, and propelled itself at the mercenary, it’s clawed hand grasping her entire face. He pulled her off the ground as she attempted to kick Nogard, before it tore her in half and threw both parts of her body into the forest.

Quan was sitting in the corner of the cave with his fellow Zetas, what if no ones even killed anyone yet?, fear gripped him, he didn’t want to die, not now, not like this. He stared at the group before him, four… close enough, Quan raised his gun and Katherine looked over, “George? What are you doing, don’t point that at me, what are you thinking, George? George?!?” Quan fired. Katherine’s body fell, mangled by the huge amount of lead that passed through her. The other Zeta’s stared, amazed at Katherine’s body. Martin raised his gun, but he too was felled by a stream of bullets. Kain and Mellisa embraced, as Kain stammered, “George Quan, we’ve worked together for ages, you can’t just turn on us, I’ve seen people die in this thing already, you don’t have to kill anyone! Please, just don’t kill her..”

Quan looked shocked, he hadn’t thought Kain had been killing people prior to this, he started to lower his gun.

Nogard could smell it, more blood, and propelled itself towards the beach. Climbing into a small cave, it’s folded wing stabbed into the nearest enemy, pulling him out. Kain and Melissa stared at each other as they heard the screams of Quan, as the creature tore him apart. The creature, now blood-soaked, again tried to get into the cave, before stopping. Something smelled wrong, and it heard vibrations from footsteps, near the loudest footsteps it had heard. The Test Subject sprinted out of the forest, still terrified of the flame, noticing the Blood-soaked Nogard, he lunged at it, and the two were thrown into the sea.

Eaite watched the monitor float nearer to the marine, the orb’s laser hitting him in the back. Saunders fell, paralyzed more so by shock then pain, Eaite thinking the marine to be dead threw a Plasma grenade. It traveled perfectly through the air, sticking to the inside of the Monitors protective case. It exploded, seemingly evaporating. Eaite looked on, shocked, as the marine got back up, the Elite aimed his gun, as the Marine shot with his own weapon. The bullets missed the Elite by meters, instead hitting the unprotected monitor, about to blast Eaite.

“Uh…Hey…can, can we just lower the weapons, we have more of a chance surviving if we stuck together, and we did kind of save each other…you know..” The marine mumbled. The Elite replied with a grunt, before lowering his carbine, but still keeping his hand close to his needler.

Amy nodded to Jose, after she was certain their foes had left. “We’d best move, I saw a building on the snow covered mountain, it’s far from the fighting, we should be safe their…”

Anh nodded at her, before shaking his head, “Wait, what about Kodwell?”

“He’s probably already dead...” muttered Jose, as Amy helped Anh up. The three looked out from the bushes into further darkness, attempting to check that both the creature and sniper were gone. The three quickly lept from their hiding place and sprinted for the Snow.

Ldfo walked towards the park, in the centre of both city, and the island, catching a glimpse of four figures walking into the distance. The sound of gunfire echoed about the city, and Ldfo slowly walked towards its source. An Elite, lay on the floor, several mauler shots having torn through it, and Ldfo watched as the Brute responsible fought off a small group. He soon fell to his knees, before Bergenond decapitated him. Ldfo walked towards his fellow elite, recognizing some of them, “Greetings brothers, I mean you know harm,” He nodded towards Nema and Ehya. Bergenond stared at the three Elites, before turning to look at a snowcovered mountain in the distance.

“I doubt they’d bother looking for us there, I think I can make out some sort of building on it, pick up Rthao, we could still heal him.”

Ldfo was shocked the Elite had survived from his wounds, and watched his allies pick him up, as they started their journey.

Hank observed a lone figure, as his three companions pulled down a tree, in an attempt to create a boat. The lone human figure sat on a rock in a small clearing in the distance, and Hank couldn’t tell if it knew he was looking at him. Suddenly a Beam Rifle shot, passed through the man, without him fliching, it almost looked like it just passed straight through him. There was several more shots, before the Sniper appeared near him, a Elite, who continuously fired his weapons at the man, the bullets looked like they were passing through. Suddenly when the Elite had his gun at the lone man’s head, another man appeared, from the darkness, with a shotgun, and fired into the attackers stomach, who fell to the ground, dead.

Hank turned back to his companions, “Hey, get your weapons ready, I think we might have a faster way to get this done.”

They walked over, to the small clearing in the forest where the lone figure sat, Hank quickly lept into the darkness behind him, grabbing out a longhaired man, forcing him to drop his shotgun, the other man looked on with a shocked expression. “Hello there,” Hank stabbed his sword through the Lone figure, pulling it out to find him perfectly fine, not a scratch, not even in his clothing. “Quite an ability you have there, now I think we can help each other out, I won’t kill your friend here, and I’ll help you get out of here, if you do us a favor…..umm...”

“Judas, and he’s Aaron.” He said, pointing at the man Hank had in a chokehold.

“Ah, thanks. So Judas, you can move through objects?”

“Yes, I…I’m a hologram…”

“Ah… well, can you move down, through the ground?”

“….Yea…”

“Excellent! Can you do that now, just do not stop, until…well you’ll know when, and when you’re there, can you look around for a list, or box or chip…or something..”

Judas and Aaron stared at Hank, both had an incredibly confused look on their faces. “Just do it.” Hank said, and Judas quickly phased into the ground.

Episode 3: No one Move

“What are we to do ‘Vadun, will we kill without honor for the entertainment of others?” said ‘Refose shifting the plasma rifle in his hands around. ‘Vadun didn’t reply he just sat there and stared at ‘Jar Refos. ‘Jar Refose raised his rife and he tensed up, looking very carefully at the elite. The elite sitting across from him fell over a full clip of spiker ammo in its back still red hot. ‘Jar Refos jumped up from his sitting position and grabed the second plasma rifle. The Brute jumped out from the shadows wielding his hammer and slammed it down in front of ‘Jar Refose. The gravity field sent the elite flying backwards with the dead body of the other elite. Both the elites, alive and dead, flew backwards, the metal spikes from the elites back stabbed ‘Jar Refos in the thigh. He winced and push the dead body off him, whispering a small prayer, he ran at the Brute sword drawn.

The brute slammed his hammer down, but the elite jumped and he flew up in the air falling straight down slamming his sword down of the brute. The hammer staff went in between the energy swords blades. The brute flicked his hammer hitting the elite in the chest sending him flying backwards. The brute ran again slamming his hammer on his foot knocking out the elites shields and crushing his foot. The brute brought the butt of his hammer into the elites knee breaking it and sending the elite stumbling backwards. Raktos ran forward and tried to bring his hammer onto the elites head finishing the fight, but this was not the case. ‘Jar Refos dropped the overheated plasma pistol and held up his purple energy sword. He sliced right through the brutes hammer and the head fell to the ground useless. The brute dropped his hammer butt and drew his spiker and swung at the unshielded elite. Just missing ‘Jar Refos’s shoulder, the elite swung his sword cutting the spiker and the brutes hand from his body.

‘Jar Refos looked at the brute, missing his right hand, ‘Jar Refos took a plasma grenade from his pocket and stuck it to the brute’s head.

“Goodbye enemy,” he said with a small prayer as the grenade exploded. He walked over to the dead body of his fellow elite and started to take the spikes out of its back saying a prayer for every spike he took out of his back.

Iota Seven stared at the Prophet-Elite both had a projectile weapon and both were standing 12 feet away from each other. Iota Seven made the first move firing a grenade from the attachment on her battle rifle. It exploded right near her and sent her flying sideways and she recovered firing several bursts from her gravity rifle, they hit Iota Seven’s helmet knocking it off. She did a roll and jumped up firing two bursts into Broley’s helmet. Broley jumped out of the way and fired another burst hit Iota Seven in the gut, knocking the wind out of her.

Broley then drew her Energy Sabre and ran at the Iota and stabbed out at Iota Seven. It caught her on the side, cutting deep into her rib, she recoiled and fired another burst into Broley’s head knocking out her shields. Iota Seven dropped her battle rifle and threw a dagger at her foe, which she nimbly dodged and ran closer to the human. Iota Seven kept on running backwards and pulled out her K7 smg firing at Broley she did a dive and speared Iota Seven through the gut. Iota seven jumped back and fired some more at the Elite-Prophet Hybrid, which easily missed because of the extreme pain in her stomach.

Broley jumped at the Iota and stabed Iota Seven straight through the forehead. The Iota fell down a small black hole in her forehead, Broley looked from the tower they stood on towards the forest, which was quickly setting on fire.

Kisho grunted and ran after Ahug both being grunts they decided to stick together, Ahug armed with a needler and two plasma grenades and Kisho armed with four plasma grenades and a plasma pistol. Out behind them an elite walked out armed with two energy swords and he spotted the two grunts walking. He snuck up behind them and was poised to strike with his energy swords when one turned around. It jumped and yelled and started to run away when Jemsel jumped at it. The grunt ducked just in time and the sword flew over his head barely. The grunt behind Jemsel activated a grenade and threw it at Jemsel. The elite noticing this at the last moment he jumped to the side and the plasma grenade stuck Kisho straight between the eyes. He really was scared now and he ran straight at the elite opponent grabing his leg in a suicide lock. The elite tried to shake him off, but it was too late. The grenade exploded, detonating the plasma grenades on the grunts hip killing the elite.

Kisho walked over to the one dead body as they had been merged together by the intense heat. He poked one with his finger and the molten flesh hardened around his finger causing great burns of the finger and sealing him to the corpse. He stood there trying to pull his finger free, but to no avail.

“Grunt Grunt Sequel Yelp,” he said in the strange grunt language as he dragged the large amount of flesh with him as he walked further down the path that lead to the city.

Leon Polski looked through the window of the overturned warthog he crouched behind. The SPARTAN fired another shot from his sniper, the warthog’s thin armor was punched straight through by the high caliber round. Leon Polski jumped out from behind the warthog and dived behind a larger denser rock. SPARTAN-060 jumped down from his perch and started running at the human. As he was running he saw something pop out on his radar, it was red. He tried stopping, but a arm shot out from the trees beside him. The arm clothes lined him and he fell to the ground making a larger scrap in the ground. A man walked out of the forest a unknown SPARTAN walked out of the forest, assault rifle pointed straight at his face.

“Hey Mavrick,” said Roy as he stepped on Mavrick’s chest. A noise was heard from the left of the two SPARTANs and a foot came out of the forest and hit Roy in the chest. A elite looked at both of the fallen SPARTANs and pulled out his sword.
Stabbing Roy through the chest he withdrew and turned to stab Mavrick. This was not to be as Mavrick hit the elite threw the mouth up into his frontal lob passing out of the back of his head with a sniper shot. Mavrick looked at the dead bodies, policed the elites sword and walked off.

Kaneda Tetsuo jumped form his perch in the window of a skyscraper, back into the office. His head flicked as he heard several footsteps outside the door. He raised his sniper in one hand and his magnum in his other, pointing both at the door. The footsteps grew louder and Tetsuo adjusted his grip. As the tell tale signs of someone trying to get into the locked room, Tetsuo fired his sniper through the door hitting the person on the other side. A short grunt was head as the person recoiled then a click. The door exploded and splinters went everywhere, a person ran into the room with two M6C magnums and began popping off shots at Tetsuo. Tetsuo dropped his sniper and grabbed his magnum in both hands firing several rounds at the other human. The person pulled the trigger and the gun clicked empty he threw that one away. He grabbed the first in both hands popping off three more shots before that one clicked empty to. Tetsuo took this as an opportunity and charged the defense less human. The human fumbled with his ammo and finally loading it click back the top of the gun, as Tetsuo was standing right in front of him holding his melee weapon high.

Rhino Leader also took this as an opportunity and fired two quick bullets into the lower abdomen of Tetsuo. The mercenary recoiled and Rhino Leader jumped at him kicking him square in the chest. Tetsuo stumbled backwards and out the window, Rhino Leader looked out the window confidently and holstered his two weapons.

Athenian sat there looking out into the burning forest, which surrounded the large metal tower he sat on. The small gas mask which covered only his mouth and nose enclosed let him breath through the thick smoke billowing out of the forest. He conjured a small flame light the pile of sticks beside him on fire, giving the tower a small warmth. As he looked back at the other side of the tower he saw his companion, a crewman sitting there both waiting for their chance to leave. They were an odd pair, a calm cool-headed crewman and a fire gushing renegade SPARTAN. Athenian looked down and saw three SPARTANs standing guns drawn pointing at each other. One the female had a MA5C, another a younger looking one had a M90 shotgun and the last an older one had a BR55 Battle Rilfe A second later the group saw that their battle would have to be short lived for the flames consuming the forest were closing in.

“Come on, we are all SPARTANs can’t we just work together,” said the female SPARTAN.

“No you heard what the host said, there can be only one at the end,” said the younger of the two male SPARTANs as he ran towards the other male. The older started to back up firing off burst. As the younger got to close he spun jabbing the youth in the gut. His shields flickered losing about a tenth of the power. The M90 was up in a second and he pressed it to the older man’s arm, firing taking out his shields and part of his arm. The older one recoiled and dropped the Battle Rifle and pulled out a M7. He shot a third of the clip into the younger then dropped back, ducking just as the youth fired his shotgun again. Then the female came between the two, she pushed both of them back and pulled off her helmet.

“You fools stop fighting,” said Amy as both males recognized her.

“Move!” James said as he pushed her out of his way, tackling the male across from him. He pumped his shotgun and pushed the barrel straight into his mask, breaking it. The older using some of his strength threw the younger off him; the young SPARTAN grabbed the older from the shoulder spinning putting the shotgun behind his head. Also he twisted his arm behind his back in the age-old submission arm lock.

“See ya old man,” he said into the ear of the older SPARTAN shooting the shotgun into his back.

“You fool James!” Amy yelled running over and pushing him off.

“Why?” he said get up off his knees.

“This man, this man was Edwin, Edwin Davis,” she said as a face off surprise went over his face.

“No, no not my father!” he said flipping over the body to reveal the mans face, it was.

“He looks like you,” said Amy as she walked away from the grieving SPARTAN. James sat there for a second then loaded his fathers body onto his back running after Amy.

Episode 4: Tears Are Sweeter Than You Think...

The sun was rising as Judas reemerged from the ground, his body phasing out of it. In his hands was a small box, riddled with intricate wires and chips. “That was weird…” he mumbled, before turning to Hank, “Is this it?”

“Should be…looks it.” Replied the Spartan I, “Now I want you to hack into it.”

“Hack? Into this?...I doubt I could hack into a 20th century computer”

Dean erupted into swearing, before regaining his cool and turning back to Hank, “So we’ve got it, but have no way of using it? Well Oh Boy, that’s just great!”

77 took the small box from Judas, and examined it, “I…don’t really know what this is..”

Dean walked over to him, “It’s kind of like a hard drive ‘cept it’s for this mega program…”

G-23 ran through the forest, still wheezing a little from his encounter with the Test Subject ‘Dean, must find Dean, must find Dean’ the thought continuously rolled through his head, Dean was his way out of here.

Eaite and Gary sat by the edge of the Desert, still in the shade of the forest trees, they checked their weapons and equipment, when Eaite’s motion sensor went off, Gary looked over, “So your radar thingy’s working, eh?”

“Yes, that means there are enemies near by, two of them.”

“I see, what does it do when there’s a heap, so there’s lots in the space the dot makes up?”

“No there really is two enemies coming towards us from the desert.”

“S***!”

“Foolish Human…”

Two figures appeared from the desert, as the two previously seated at the deserts edge ran into forest hurriedly, and assembled their weapons.

Anh Ng was attempting to create a fire, as he and Jose sat huddled in a small wooden shack in the snow covered mountain that overlooked the Island. The door swung open, and the two men turned, guns primed, to see Amy, and another SPARTAN.

“Where’d you go, and who’s he?” Jose said, pointing at the SPARTAN.

“This was… one…. of the people I was looking for, he could help us, and I wanted to know he was safe…”

The two soldiers mumbled and presumed their work as the two Spartans, Amy and James stood behind them.

“It’s Ok, you didn’t know.” Amy said to her companion as he stooped into the corner.

Bergenond reached the base of the snowy mountain and stared up at the cabin, “We’re nearly there, ‘Uhcoree, how’s ‘Haerum?”

The young Elite took his companion, riddled with Mauler shots off his shoulders, lying him on the ground and checking his wounds, before turning towards his commanding officer, “He’s getting worse, we need to treat his wounds fast.”

“It’s not safe in the open! Out here! Do some basic procedures, make him last long enough for us to reach the cabin.”

‘Uhcoree nodded, and got to work on the wounded Elite before him, as his other three companions stared over his shoulders.

SPARTAN-065, and the marine Stephen Geauer trudged slowly through the rough desert terrain, having barely seen another being since the last sunrise, where they’s shot that Murderous Elite.

The Two reached the edge of the forest, “Haven’t we been here?” the Marine asked, looking up at his Spartan allie.

“Uh…Yea…. No… we were further up you can still see the Elite’s corpse” The Spartan said, pointing at a small blot near the horizon.

“So we walked in a Semi-Circle?”

“Yea… but, heck, it’s kept us safe, right?”

The marine grumbled slightly at this response, before dropping to the ground at the sound of rustling the nearby bushes. The sunlight still hadn’t reached into this part of the forest, which remained almost pitch black. 65 walked slowly and quietly, with his gun drawn, only to see a familiar face rush out.

“Gary?”

“Troy? Steve??”

The three lowered their weapons, and grinned ecstatically at each other, before Steve was felled from a sudden, swift, and camouflaged sword.

“Steve? Eaite! F*** Don’t! I KNOW THESE….”

But it was to late, the almost invisible Elite lunged at the Spartan before him, only to get receive several shots as he flew through the air, then the butt of the Spartans gun to his face as he landed. His shield, drained, the Elite ducked another blow from the Spartan, and retreated, until his Camouflage and shield both kicked back in. The Spartan started fireing wildly, “Gary! Do Something!!!” He shouted, to the young marine who’d curled himself into a fetal position on the sand.

“Steve, oh god it wasn’t meant to be this way… Eaite you didn’t know, but if I hadn’t trusted you, or if you hadn’t trusted me… then Steve would…. Oh… steve…” The marine mumbled into the sand, which had gotten moist from his tears.

Troy was already a bad shot with his gun, it didn’t help he couldn’t see his foe, who had already gotten behind him, and swiftly stuck his sword through the SPARTANS lungs.

As G-23 reached the top of the slight incline, he had been traveling, a gunshot echoed throughout the forest. It sounded like a human weapon, but not like a battle or assault rifle. Again the sound roared, echoing in the area below the Spartan. This weapon sounded deep, loud and nearby. “Damn… Sniper.” The Spartan thought to himself, as he lay himself flat on the ground, between two tree trunks, overlooking a small clearing in the forest below. The Spartan stared for a moment, noticing several figures below, though it appeared none had noticed him. They were also hiding, attempting to get cover from the sniper.

SPARTAN-077 held the hand of the corpse next to him, a large hole gaped through the side of it’s head, it’s face unrecognizable behind the fresh mask of blood, that continued to pool around them. The Sniper had gotten him, when they least expected, they’d put their guard down just briefly to examine the box, which their foe had quickly and successfully taken advantage of. Dean was dead.
G-23 looked at the corpse, though he recognized its companions before the body itself. The Spartan looked on, stunned at what he believed to possibly be his only way out of this hellish game, get so swiftly stolen from him.

Maverick looked through his scope, noticing a man, still in the open, carrying a box, he fired, though the bullet seemingly evaporated, before reappearing on the other side of the man, and cracking a large rock behind him. Maverick looked up, slightly confused, just in time to avoid a shot from SPARTAN-064’s rifle, that traveled up the snipers entire scope. Knowing his obvious visibility, Maverick retreated, stumbling as he went down the slight incline.

“Oh, Maverick, you fool… Do You know what you’ve just done?” A familiar whispered behind him.

“’Ello 23, haven’t seen you for a while.” Maverick replied to the SPARTAN behind him, as they both slowly raised their weapons.

Bergenond’s golden armour shone from the light reflecting off the snow, as he led his small group of Elites to the rustic wooden cabin that seemed to slant in the snow. Bergenond, raised his fist, as he noticed light and smoke emanating from within the shack, he quietly ordered Ldfo and Ehya to search around the outside for possible entrances, or a way to view whoever was inside. The back of the cabin was covered in snow, so much, that it’s back appeared submersed in it, allowing Ehya to scale onto its roof. The Elite attempted to crawl, to see through the cracks at the occupants, only for the roof to creak, and give way under the Elite, and his amour’s weight, the humans filled him with enough lead to make a meter tall statue of a bullet, before he hit the ground.

Bergenond and Nema rushed in through the front door at the sound of the gunshots, with the Golden Elite’s sword thrusting through Jose’s back before he could turn to face his opponents. Amy and James both half-emptied rounds into Nema, one into his head, the other his groin, felling the Elite swiftly, as Ldfo bashed through the wall to the side of them, as Amy swung around, elbowing the young Elite to the ground. Anh watched Bergenond approach him, sword drawn as the soldier desperately tried to reload his weapon, only to see the Elite get tackled by James, letting the marine thank someone higher for letting Amy bring that guy along.

The wounded Elite left outside watched, through half opened eyes, as Anh sprinted outside the fray in the cabin and noticed him. The Elite scrambled for a gun, finally reaching a plasma rifle, and fired several shots into the marines leg, who fell to his knees, and fired back

The Athenian, along with Brandon Rebuga, had been observing this, their tower having earlier been destroyed by two rampaging monsters, one the Athenian recalled facing along time ago, on an icy, cold world. The two had retreated, also noticing the cabin, and then noticing the blast of weaponry. “You know you could slim the number of players in this game by quite a few…” The crewman said to the hooded figure next to him, who nodded and sprinted ahead into the battle.

The Athenian leapt through the hole in the cabin, made by Ldfo’ and exploded in flame. The cabin burst, and fragmented into thousands of burning splinters, sending those fighting, flying and burning down the side of the mountain. The hooded figure stood up amongst the wreckage, as a large avalanche approached, those around him, had mostly all still survived, though they were now speeding down the slope, in an attempt to escape the oncoming snow or just thrown from the blast. The Athenian’s hands glowed, as out of them formed a wall of flame that was hit by the oncoming snow, liquidizing, it, then vaporizing it into moisture in the air before it neared him, though the Avalanche continued to approach those who had escaped.

Anh, who had triumphed over the already wounded Elite was blasted onto it’s corpse by the explosion, and sent down the mountain, as two more Elites, and only one Spartan followed him. The four, heavily wounded where forced down the mountainside, by the explosion, the Elites, both badly injured, James, was still in fair condition, bar the holes in his amour, and Anh with wounds in his leg. Amy was, however nowhere to be seen. The Explosion had also caused an Avalanche, and though Anh had no idea how it had happened he wasn’t given overly long to think about it, as he was shot through his chest several times by the Carbine of Ldfo’ who was sliding down the mountain behind him. The Elites then turned their weapons on the SPARTAN, who returned fire, before hurling a grenade that, though it failed to kill the two, did send them out of firing range.

Rasputin cleaned the blood off his goggles, allowing the sunlight to tint off it lightly, in time to notice a shadow quickly pass over.

The glowing green monitor, 047 Kamikaze Crusader swooped through the sky, above the forest, humming in a high pitched, almost grunt like tone, before stopping suddenly mid-flight. It sensed abnormal radio waves, technology completely new, and strange. The monitor swooped down into a forest clearing, to see two Spartans, a bandaged sword wielding man, a corpse with a monstrously deformed face and two beings who appeared to be civilians, all appeared to be crouching for cover.

One of these civilians was holding a small machine that appeared to be emitting the waves.

“What the? Aye, get lost!” One of the Spartans yelled, as all the people in the clearing raised their weapons at the monitor.

“Greetings, I am 047 Kamikaze Crusader, may I please examine this most wondrous item you are presently handling?” the monitor exclaimed, in a voice near identical to your typical grunt.

The humans looked at each other with confused looks, before the one holding the box responded, “No way, get lost.”

Several thousand reactions were computerized through the monitor in the following seconds, before it came to the conclusion it was dealing with a being also made of foreign technology, though it was much less worthwhile then the other item in it’s possession, so having concluded what it believed the appropriate response, it unleashed a beam that permanently disabled the holographic man.

The other supposed civilian looked in stunned astonishment as his friend disappeared, before raising his shotgun and placing the end of it’s barrels to the monitors “eye”, “You… You killed him, you B******!”

“I was only doing what was necessary, he was merely an assembly of pixels, with a built in speech projector, and now I can examine this Item, and hopefully explore the many secrets this is certain to hold!”

Spartan 064 quickly jumped in and punched the long haired man onto the floor, snatching his shotgun as he fell. Hank J Wimbleton IV approached the monitor, “So You could… Hack this?”

Episode 5: Pressing Start Won't Work

Brandon Rebuga crept forward slowly, heading towards the half buried Athenian. While the Athenian's fire had protected him from the avalanche to a point, it couldn't last forever, and after it had given out he had been buried near completely in the snow and pushed down the mountain some. Slowly, he'd been digging himself out, not wanting to use his flamethrower so close to himself.
Rebuga closed in, raising his pistol and taking aim. But as Rebuga pulled the trigger, the Athenian's arm broke free and this caused him to move quickly to the side. The bullet was fired, but all it did was cut into the Athenian's arm as it passed. The Athenian turned his head around quickly, and saw Rebuga take aim once again. Rebuga pulled the trigger three times in rapid succession, but the Athenian reacted quickly, managing to dodge the first two. The third bullet, however, was not dodged, and it sunk deep into the Athenian's left arm.
Realizing he'd been betrayed and the urgency of the situation, the Athenian pushed the button to activate his flamethrower without a thought about the possible harm to himself. The snow quickly melted away, even as more began to fall into it's place. During this brief moment, the Athenian jumped out.
Rebuga finished reloading and fired several shots at the Athenian. The Athenian rolled to the side and quickly fired a few fireballs, one of which managed to hit Rebuga's pistol, melting it and burning his hand. Rebuga dropped the hot, semi-liquid metal and turned to the nearby trees, attempting to gain an element of surprise to compensate for his lack of a weapon.
As Rebuga fled, the Athenian followed. For several minutes the Athenian searched for a phantom marine, as Rebuga continually evaded him and threw rocks and such from a distance. But then, Rebuga suddenly jumped out from behind the Athenian knocking him down and grabbing his throat. The two rolled around chaotically, until Rebuga managed to get below the Athenian, and tightened his grip on his throat as well as hold down his arms with his legs. In a last ditch effort, the Athenian managed to break his arm free and blasted a fireball into Rebuga's head at point-blank.
For a second, Rebuga's body stiffened incredibly, threatening to take the Athenian with him to the grave. But then his grip loosened and not a move or sound came from Rebuga. The Athenian released himself and then got up off the ground.
He stared at Rebuga for a few seconds, then said, “An admirable attempt at betrayal, comrade; ill conceived and ill planned, but admirable nontheless.”

Kisho slowly walked towards the city, dragging the melted mass that had once been Jemsal and Ahug's bodies behind him. Suddenly, several nearby bushes moved, and Kisho tried in vain to pull the dead weight he was connected to in some sort of quick manner. Finding that running was impossible, he hid behind it instead.
The sounds in the bushes grew louder, until the being finally revealed itself. Kisho was greatly relieved to see another Grunt.
“Yep da nu nu?”, said Kisho, asking for the Grunt's name.
The Grunt jumped, and nearly ran, but when he saw Kisho, he calmed down and answered him. “Grunt seep sa ta Grutto.”
Now knowing each other's name's Kisho and Grutto decided to ally themselves and stay together. So, they continued down the road to town.
As the two walked into town, it seemed unusually quiet and deserted. Few ere left in this death fight, and most had abandoned the city. But not all.......
As they walked down one of the main streets, the concrete in front of them blasted and cracked upward as a sniper bullet hit it. Several more followed, and Grutto ran. Kisho tried, but the dead weight was too much, and one of the bullets hit Kisho in the skull, killing him instantly.
On a rooftop a few blocks away, SPARTAN-G256, Matt, fired a few more shots at the fleeing Grutto. Seeing that Grutto had gone to far away, Matt attached a rappel line to the building and rappelled down the side of the building. Quickly he ran through the streets, searching for the fleeing Grunt.
Grutto ran down another street, hearing the footsteps of his attacker behind him. Quickly, he ducked into a doorway, and watched as Matt ran by without noticing him. Having lost his pursuer, he ran back out and continued down a street in a different direction.
But soon, several pistol shots peppered the ground around him. Once more Grutto fled, as the attacker, another human, revealed himself and followed him. But as he ran, several sniper rounds hit the ground in front of him. Rhino Leader stopped to miss them, and Grutto ran as fast as he could off into the forest.
Rhino Leader quickly dodged as more bullets came his way. Matt reloaded, and fired at the cover Rhino Leader hid behind, which resulted in him quickly jumping into a nearby building. Matt then jumped from his position and followed.
Once inside the building, Matt placed his Sniper Rifle on his back and readied his Battle Rifle. Then, he slowly walked about, searching for Rhino Leader. Soon enough, Rhino Leader began to shoot at him, and Matt returned fire, but neither managed any good hits.
But then, Matt managed to hit Rhino Leader's right arm. Rhino Leader dropped his right weapon due to his inability to hold it, and holstered his left hand one so he could try and stop the bleeding in his right arm. Then, he tried to run.
But as he ran, Matt shot his legs, and he fell. Then the Spartan fired once more, killing his foe. With his enemy defeated, Matt left for the forest, to defeat what other opponents were left.

Kain Furry and Mellisa Harverd walked carefully along the beach, hoping to avoid detection. After Nogard's attack, they had hid in the cave for at least half a day, completely ignored by the other inhabitants of the island. But soon, a dreadful thought had come into their minds: what if they ended up being the last two, and had to fight each other? They wouldn't, couldn't, accept that fate. So, they had gotten out of the cave and traveled along the beach, but though they had heard gunfire in the distance, they had not seen a single soul.
But that soon changed, as in the distance, two figures appeared. Kain and Mellisa quickly ducked for cover behind a large rock and watched the approaching pair. One was an Elite in the armor of an Honor Guard Commander, holding a Plasma Rifle in his hand, with an Energy Sword on his hip. The other was a Human, a UNSC crewman, armed only with a Magnum Pistol. How the two had come together, or how long they'd been together would never be known, because as soon as they came within range, Kain and Mellisa opened fire.
The human, Bryan Hankel, quickly rolled out of the way, and fired off a few shots before hiding behind another large rock. Oda 'Tar Vantinree also fired some shots, then rolled into a small ditch. As Hankel continued to trade fire with Kain and Mellisa, Oda slowly crawled forwards, slowly flanking the last two members of Zeta Squad.
Kain looked over at Mellisa, who made hand signals telling him that they should flank Hankel. Mellisa then slowly walked forward, but as she did, Kain saw Oda quickly get up and pull out his Energy Sword.
“Mellisa, behind you!”, Kain yelled as he fired his Battle Rifle. Oda's shields dropped some, but not enough to stop him. As Mellisa turned, she pulled the triggers on both her SMGs, unleashing a storm of bullets. But the bullets ceased as Oda's sword stabbed into Mellisa's stomach.
“No!!”, yelled Kain as he fired his Battle Rifle at Oda, who was now shieldless, and charged. Once he was close enough, he crashed the butt of his gun into his near-dead opponent's skull, and heard the sickening cracks as it broke and blood oozed out.
Now in a rage, Kain turned around to find the Elite's companion, Hankel, already fleeing. Kain fired several wild shots, but all of them missed. Hankel, on the other hand, fired three parting shots, two of which hit Kain. But Kain hardly noticed the pain. He was filled with a want for revenge, one that destroyed all other feelings. He was the last of Zeta Squad, and he would avenge his fallen teammates.
Kain Furry ran into the forest after Bryan Hankel, a man as good as dead in Kain's eyes.

Ameigh Broley stared out over the island, looking at nothing in particular. The battlements of this ancient stone fortress at the foot of the mountains were completely empty, save for Ameigh. She had sat there ever since her fight with Iota Seven. She now had no wish to continue this stupid game; indeed, for that was all it could be. Something was amiss; this had to be some punishment or at least a mockery of life, death and battle.
Oh yes, she had known something was wrong as soon as Iota Seven had died. Ameigh had killed hundreds, if not thousands, of foes, and she knew the way one died. But with this one, every rule had been broken, not one rule of death followed. It had been like the Human's life had been vaporized ina single instant, instead of fading away slowly.
But in any case, Ameigh had been greatly disturbed by this. So, she had sat there for hours, undisturbed, pondering what to do, if anything. But at last, the peace and silence was broken, as Ameigh heard footsteps approaching. Footsteps of an old friend......
“Hello 'Refos”, said Ameigh, turning to face her old student.
“We meet again Master Broley”, replied 'Refos, “If only it was under friendlier circumstances”
“We need not fight 'Refos”
“I'm sorry Master, but you are mistaken.”
Quickly, 'Refos threw a Plasma Grenade at Ameigh, hoping it would kill her. But Ameigh gracefully dodged the grenade, and pulling out her Gravity Rifles, she opened fire on 'Refos. 'Refos also dodged and opened fire with his Plasma Rifles as well. Reminiscent of the gun fights in the Human movies during the 20th and 21st centuries, the two ran in a circle, before diving behind large blocks of rubble.
“This is pointless and without honor, 'Refos”, said Ameigh, “It is all a foul trick.”
“Cease with your trickery”, said 'Refos, “Lies are not for a warrior; you said so yourself”
“And I stand by it, for this is no lie. This is all some illusion, some mockery of life; who knows, we ourselves may not truly be. But I do know that when I killed a Human earlier, I did not see a los of life or triumph of death in her eyes: I saw nothing.”
'Refos could not believe such a thing to be true, so he jumped up and charged Ameigh, pulling out and activating his Energy Sword along the way. But Ameigh also rose, and met his Energy Sword with her Energy Sabre. A vicious duel began, Ameigh's skill with the blade matching that of the enraged 'Refos.
Once more they locked blades, and as they stood there, Ameigh spoke. “Can you not feel that something is amiss, 'Refos? Or will you continue to ignore it for some promised reward that may not even exist? Where is the honorable I once knew?”
Before 'Refos could answer though, a bone-chilling cry was heard, and several Flood combat forms jumped from the forest below up onto the battlements. 'Refos and Ameigh pushed away from each and attacked the new threat. At least two dozen combat forms had appeared, but Ameigh and 'Refos both had energy weapons, a bane to all Flood.
As the Flood finally thinned, Ameigh heard a flood cry behind her. She turned to see a combat form nearly upon her, and there was no time to react. But right before it could reach her, 'Refos slashed it with his Energy Sword, disintegrating it.
“An honorable warrior does not let his fellow warrior fall”, said 'Refos.
Ameigh broke into a Sangheili grin. “Thank you”, she said. She then looked around, and said, “We should move on. I don't know where the Parasite came from, or how they got here, but we should go in case more come.”
“Agreed”, said 'Refos. With that, both quickly left the fortress and entered the forest.

Eama 'Uhcuree walked along the mountain ridge, looking around warily and wearily. He had been wandering through the mountains for the whole of the contest, and had not seen another being the entire time. HE had even begun to wonder if it all wasn't some sort of torment; that he had died in his sleep and as punishment for some unknown crime against the gods he was doomed to wander these frigid hills for eternity.
But soon, Eama heard a humming sound. He looked around and saw a Monitor floating away in the distance. He ran at full speed and managed to catch it.
“Hello Oracle”, he said.
“Ah, a warrior. I wish I could study you, but the protocol of this tournament states the required death of all but one contestant. Sadly, your termination is required. Farewell.”
Eama quickly dodged as Rampant Geer fired his Monitor beam. Immediately, Eama threw a Plasma Grenade and started firing his Needlers. Geer moved out of the way of the grenade easily, but half of the Needles managed to hit the Monitor's shield, dropping it by a quarter of its' power

From a distance, the Athenian heard the sounds of battle. Quickly, he ran along the slopes of the mountains, the noise growing as he came closer.
Then, as he topped one last hill, he saw the fight. As he watched, finding it impressive that Eama had taken on a Monitor, Geer fired a powerful beam at Eama, knocking him down wounded. Seeing an opportunity to gain an ally, the Athenian rushed forward.
Eama looked up at the Monitor, and prepared for death. But as he looked, several large fireballs hit Geer's shield, knocking it offline. Taking advantage of this, Eama fired his Needlers, causing a huge explosion that totally obliterated the Monitor.
The Athenian walked over to Eama as he began to get up. “Let me help you”, said the Athenian in faux politeness.
“I trust no one”, replied Eama. Then he raised his Needlers and fired at the Athenian, getting up as he did so. The Athenian rolled to the side and fired fireballs at the Elite. And so it continued, both firing and trying to dodge, nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide.
Both suddenly stopped as they heard a chilling shriek. They looked around to see at least 20 Flood combat forms surrounding them and closing in. With a warcry they charged, and as they did, the Athenian and Eama attacked. Soon, the Flood were killed, but as the Athenian turned, he saw Eama pointing his Needlers at him once more.
“I suggest”, said the Athenian, “That you put those down and we work together. As you've just seen, there are greater threats on this island than me. We'll both survive longer if we ally.”
Eama thought it over, then grunted his approval. The two then began their ascent from the mountains. All the while, both were extremely wary of what the other one did.

Kinoshi looked out of the log she was hiding in, and then ran off. After her battle with the Athenian, that was all she had done: run to hide, hide to run, never stopping, always moving. This whole thing was some sort of nightmare that she wanted to end.
She got her wish. As she ran through the forest, a Russian man jumped out and stabbed her with his Energy Machetes, straight through the heart. Her death was near instantaneous.
“Too easy”, said Rasputin as he looked at the fallen Astuto.
But then Rasputin heard the sound of twigs cracking and bushes shaking behind him, and turned to see an Elite charging him. With little time left, Resputin tried to dodge, but the Elite's Energy Sword still managed to cut into Rasputin's leg. Rasputin quickly slashed at the Elite's arm, missing but causing the Elite to back off. Rasputin then fired his shotgun, nearly taking down the Elite's shield, and then ran off further into the forest.
Jueqe 'Lyphtyree recovered from the Shotgun blast, and quickly looked for where his foe had gone. Seeing that Rasputin had ran, Jueqe took off after him. Though Rasputin had a hurt leg, he could run good, and the trees gave him some assistance in creating confusion. But he could not hide from Jueqe forever.......

Ameigh and 'Refos ran through the woods, knowing that the Flood were likely not far behind. Earlier, they had come down from the fortress, but at one point they had smelt the stench of the Flood. They had gone on quickly and quietly, but soon enough a warcry had gone up. The two had instantly broke into a run, not wanting to fight who knows how many Flood in the dim, close-quarters forest. But though they hadn't stopped running, they could now hear the Flood behind them, closing in.......
Ameigh and 'Refos then burst though a wall of shrubbery, only to be met with a duel between Jueqe and Rasputin.
“Flee brother”, said 'Refos as he and Ameigh kept running, “The Parasite are upon us!”
Jueqe looked at Ameigh and 'Refos as they ran by, but then turned to run as the Flood broke through the wall of shrubs. Jueqe made it several yards before Rasputin, unaware of the Flood, fired his shotgun, knocking Jueqe to the ground and wounding him.
'Refos heard the shot and looked back to see Jueqe on the ground. He struggled with himself for a brief moment, trying to decide whether to continue running, or to turn and save his fallen brother in arms. Soon enough, his honor won out, and 'Refos turned and ran back to save Jueqe.
“'Refos, what are you doing?”, said Ameigh as 'Refos ran, not stopping to answer her.
Rasputin lowered his shotgun and fired, but the blast missed as 'Refos pulled Jueqe away. Rasputin took aim again, but he turned as he heard a noise behind him. But by the time he had turned around, it was already too late, for as he did, a half a dozen Infection forms latched onto him. Rasputin tried to pull them off, but this only pained himself. Not wanting to become a Flood, Rasputin quickly activated one of his many grenades. He then closed his eyes and awaited his death......
As Ameigh, 'Refos and Jueqe ran off, they heard a loud explosion behind them and saw a bright flash. There was now a large black crater in the forest; the one grenade Rasputin had activated had set off all his other explosives and ammunition. Nothing was left in the area of effect; no plants, no Flood, no Rasputin.
“Thank you for saving me”, said Jueqe.
“You are most welcome”, said 'Refos.
“What is your name?”, asked Ameigh.
“I am Jueqe 'Lyphtyree”, Jueqe replied, “and you two are?”
“I am Dyr Jar 'Refos, and she is Ameigh Broley”, said 'Refos.
“i am honored”
“Come”, said Ameigh, “You should travel with us. We need to see if we can get free of this stupid contest, and soon.”

Stephen Chow looked through the scope on his pistol and fired, hitting Leon Polski. Leon clutched his leg, but managed to hide behind a rotten log. He then took aim at Chow, but his Assault Rifle missed. Chow continued to fire at Leon as Leon slowly advanced on Chow. Soon, Chow was aimed in the wrong direction, and as he was, Leon jumped up and knocked Chow's gun from his hand, and the two then began a fist fight, but were interrupted as two Humans toppled into their area.
Hankel ran through the forest, firing a few pistol shots back at Kain to keep him at bay. But as he ran, he suddenly came upon two men in a fist fight, and though this was a brief distraction, it was enough to make him not see a small root that caused him to trip.
Leon was momentarily distracted by Hankel and Kain's arrival, just long enough for Chow to deck him in the jaw. Chow then got up, turning to look at Hankel and Kain. Chow quickly fired a few shots at the charging Kain, and then dodged the return shots.
Hankel, meanwhile, had crawled away, and fired a few shots back at Kain. Kain continued to roll and dodged, but he was still hit several times. Finally, Hankel shot, and the bullet hit Kain's skull, killing him instantly.
Leon shook off the effects of the punch and got back up, and then aimed at Hankel. Chow saw him, and pulled Hankel out of the way before he was shot. As Leon reloaded, Hankel charged him, managing to put him in a head-lock with his arms behind his back. Hankel then began to squeeze.
“Stop!”, said Chow, raising his gun, “I suggest an alliance.”
Slowly, Hankel released Leon. The three would ally, but they would watch each other extremely carefully.

Nogard slashed at the Test Subject's face and his claws cut deep. A mammoth hand grabbed him and threw him into a nearby rock, which cracked from the force of the impact. Nogard tried to stand, but was grabbed before he could, and the Test Subject threw him up the mountain at least 20 yards. Nogard quickly stood, bent backwards with a chaingun-effect of popping bones and moved his right arm to ensure it healed quickly and correctly. The Test Subject charged up the hill, straight towards him. Around him all the plants, even the shrubbery, had disappeared, and the ground had become a sandy, gravelly mix of ash and soot. And though they continued to rise higher, the temperature did not drop, but instead rose.
They were in the center of the island, climbing the volcano, heading straight for the opening at the top.
The Test Subject roared as he ran and threw a giant fist at Nogard. This creature had attack and hurt him, and he would pay dearly. Nogard jumped backwards into the air, spread his wings and tried to fly away, but the Test Subject jumped into the air and grabbed Nogard. both fell back to the ground, Nogard's wing membranes completely torn, rendering him grounded. Quickly, he sheathed his wings and jumped at the Test Subject, who was still recovering.
The Test Subject shook his head as he looked up, and saw Nogard just in time to react. The Test Subject threw out a large hand, and stopped Nogard from being able to fully smash into him. Still, Nogard's sheathed wings had hit their marks and were dug deep into the Test Subject's shoulders. The Test Subject roared in pain and anger, then grabbed Nogard's head tightly and ripped him off. Nogard was smashed into the ground repeatedly as blood from the shoulder and stomach wound dripped on him before they healed. Then the Test Subject lifted Nogard with both arms, tore off the rest of his wings and tossed him 100 feet up the volcano, leaving Nogard lying only a few yards from the edge. The Test Subject roared louder than ever and thundered up to kill Nogard.
Nogard's senses quickly returned, and he stood, finding his wings competely gone and several bones broken. He once again popped them back into place, and then looked for his foe. He saw the Test Subject thundering towards him, and roared a cry of challenge. They cry was answered, and Nogard charged towards the Test Subject.
Within seconds, they crashed together, becoming a tangled mess of slashes, swipes, kicks, bites and punches. It seemed that no matter what they did, neither could defeat the other. And slowly, they rolled ever closer to the edge of the volcano.
Then, the Test Subject landed a hard blow at just the right time, and Nogard flew through the air, nearly going down into the volcano. Yet, before he went far down, he grabbed a rock that was hanging out. He looked and tried to find another to help him climb back out, but his rock was the only one sticking out. The Test Subject came over to the edge and looked down at Nogard, giving what could be considered a look of gloating glee. But then the Test Subject did the worst thing he could possibly do:
He roared a victory cry and beat on the ground.
Rapidly, the ground and cliff around Nogard and the Test Subject gave way, the rocks and the beasts hurdling towards the lava below. But a piece of the lava, for unknown reasons and at an unknown time, had hardened. And on this piece of rock, both Nogard and the Test Subject landed.
The heat was excruciating; both Nogard and the Test Subject's skin melted off, yet healed back near immediately. The two locked in a death struggle; there was no escape from this place, but the two were too intent on killing each other to realize this. They struggled long and hard, each one attempting to kill their opponent at any cost; slitting their throat, stabbing their heart or throwing them in the lava, it didn't matter.
Around them, the lava began to bubble and shot up in pillars as the heat grew. The volcano would soon erupt, no matter who lived or died.
And then, Nogard managed to jump onto his opponents head. He tore at it, trying with all his strength to get past the regenerating skin to destroy his foe's brain. The Test Subject flailed wildly, attempting to knock Nogard off. The eruption became more violent, as did the beasts, and their platform rocked and cracked.
Then, the platform toppled and cracked, and both monsters fell into the lava, ending their battle. The others on the island only saw the the volcano was erupting, having no knowledge of the mighty battle that had taken place.

“You're a fool Maverick”, said G23, “You may have just killed our only way out of this stupid contest”
“You just want to play the hero and save everyone”, said Maverick, “You're too chicken to kill anyone. I'll fix that”
Maverick through his broken Sniper Rifle down and charged at G23. G23 dodged and fired his Battle Rifle; Maverick's shields flickered down some, and he returned fire with his Magnum. The two continued for a while, dodging fire and hiding behind trees until they were both out of ammo.
Realizing that Maverick hadn't fired yet, G23 jumped out of his hiding place and raced towards Maverick's cover. Maverick heard him, and also jumped out, but was too late and G23 crashed headlong into Maverick. Knocking him to the ground, G23 began to punch and pound Maverick over and over. Maverick tried to block some, but he was in a bad position for defense, and as such turned to offense. With a powerful kick, he threw G23 up into the air and down onto the ground, ending with G23 landing a rock that stabbed through his leg. Maverick pulled out a knife from its' sheath on his hip, gripped it and walked forward, ready to kill.
G23 looked around quickly, and managed to see his fallen Magnum pistol lying nearby. He reached for it as Maverick closed in, but found it just out of reach. He tried to reach further, but it cut into his leg. He stopped for a moment, took a deep breath, and then, uttering a muffled yell of pain, he managed to grab the Magnum. Blood pouring from his open leg wound and his now-cut lip, he pulled the triggered five times, sending five shots into Maverick's brains. Maverick dropped to the ground, dead, as G23 tried to get himself off of the rock.

“Hmmm”, said Kamikaze Crusader, “Most peculiar”
“What?”, asked Hank, “What is it?”
“This appears to be a program; no, correction, a hardrive. Wait..... there is a seeming error. The coding suggest that this hardrive controls all of this.”
“Can you shut it down?”, asked Hank, “Get us all out of here”
“What, you believe this Reclaimer?”
“Yes we do”, said Spartan-077, “We knew it was a program before you told us; now, can you shut it down?”
“But Reclaimer”, said Crusader, “Doing so would kill you!”
“What do you mean?”, asked Hank
“Apparently you don't fully comprehend”, replied Kamikaze Crusader, “It's not just what's surrounding you that's being made by this program; all of you are too. None of this, not even ourselves, are real.”
“You mean to say that I'm not real?”, asked Spartan-064, “That nothing here is even happening in reality”
“Precisely”
Thoughts passed through the brains of each rapidly, all different but all on the same subject. A silence lingered for a moment, then Spartan-064 broke it.
"Well then, if nothing really exists here....." His voice drifted off as he lifted his Shotgun at Kamikaze Crusader and fired. Kamikaze fell to the ground in pieces, all sparking and smoking.
"What'd you do?!", said Spartan-077. He got his answer in the form of 064 raising his shotgun at 077.
"Move boy!", yelled Hank as he jumped at 077, pulling him down out of the way with him. Both Hank and 077 raised their weapons at 064 and fired back. The two allies ducked behind a large rock to hide from 064's, firing shots back and being shot at when they did so.
During this, Aaron Davids regained consciousness. Seeing the sparking remains of Kamikaze Crusader, and 064 shooting at the other two, he guessed that 064 must have betrayed them. Pulling the Assault Rifle from his back, he fired at 064. 064 was hit, and faced the already wounded Aaron, firing back; Aaron was dead in a heartbeat. Taking advantage of this, 077 and Hank opened fire quickly and heavily, draining 064's shields and puncturing his armor in some places. 064, not wanting to die, quickly ran off, with 077 firing after him.
Hank ran over and checked Aaron, but found him dead already. He looked at 077, nodded, and then got up. The two then turned in the direction that 064 had ran off in, and ran after him.

Episode 6: < ≠ > (A New Angle)

SPARTAN-56, David, swiveled himself a 360, taking in his surroundings, bush and trees. The last he could remember was the large glowing orb, in the room full of soldiers and freaks, the game, it’s rules were still fresh in his mind as he sprinted towards the forest depths. After nearly an hour or so of what had devolved into a steady jog, David stopped at the sound of a roar and gunshots and he went down on one knee, as he wedged his head into some bushes to get a better view, only to see a flood combat form in a stained toga charging towards him, before another larger monstrosity, a humanoid pile of muscles, burst out from the shrubs to the side of the parasite, flinging it back. The Test Subject looked around, as David tried to stay as still as possible to avoid detection, before it sprinted off following the floods body as it soared through the air. The Spartan stayed still for a few more seconds, sweat collecting behind his visor, before he heard yells and gunshots in the direction the Test Subject had ran, checking his guns, he followed the sound, coming across the Floods body, noticing the infection form inside of it squirming in realization it’s body was useless. He noticed the Subjects tracks, then looking back at the Parasite and remembering how easily it had been flicked away, Spartan 56 decided against following the musclebound beast, and walked off towards the city.

At the city edge David saw flashes of light, showing off the deserts whimsical miniature sand-storm. The Spartan slowly edged along the outside of the city’s high-rise buildings, before making out a figure clad in black, his face masked by his hood, kicking the charred remains of what looked like a pair of specialized UNSC pilots. David crept up on the Athenian from behind, his rifle constantly primed at its head, before his boot made a slight grinding noise at it stepped on a small patch of sand. David swore lightly as the Athenians head rose, and turned to face him. David let loose a round that seemed to be swallowed by a ball of flame that the Athenian shot back in response. David escalated his use of profanities as he dived for cover from the growing wall of flame the hooded figure was producing, and behind a wall, he rolled out a grenade, before walking backwards to safer ground, in constant expectation of being followed, but the light from a separate flame, drew the Athenians attention, and David was left to walk towards the City.

David eventually reached the City centre, finding a small park, and the bodies of a woman and a prophet, ontop of each other. He sat down on one of the benches, surveying the scene, before hopping off as he heard loud footsteps behind him. A large white Brute was also coming towards the park, from the path on the opposite side, dragging his hammer behind him. The Brute was huge, head and shoulders over any other David remembered seeing. It noticed the Spartan only seconds after, and the two stared each other down briefly before 56 cocked his rifle and took aim at the Brutes head. Lokstok ran head on at the Spartan, drawing his mauler and firing a warning shot that nonetheless forced David to jump behind the wall the bench was connected to. The Brute’s hammer came crashing down inches from this hiding spot, obliterating a large portion of the red brick wall the bench was connected to, and forcing 56 to roll into the shrubs further from the Brute, who started firing wildly into the thick green mess with his Mauler, before shambling in. David had by now reached streets and buildings, and ducked around a corner as he heard the Brutes footsteps grow louder. Lokstok sniffed the air, before running around the corner, and with a hefty swing took a chunk out of the building where 56 used to be hiding, but he was already down the street, sprinting backwards and taking aim at the Brute with his Rifle, he fired several shots, none of them hitting the Brute himself, but one breaking his Mauler. The Brute growled, before ducking back behind the building. 56 ran off, for now, his only goal was to survive, and he didn’t want to run into any trap.

Running through the city, the Spartan glanced around to catch glimpse of a young man in a red jumpsuit falling from the window of a high rise building, the gleaming windows spotlighting his screeching face, as he hit the ground with a sickening squish, his body bouncing towards the Green Spartan. Rhino Leader watched the body fall, before noticing the green tint of the armour below, before turning back towards the stairs. David was unsure of what to do, and shook inside his armour, he’d never been prepared for this, so many skilled combatants and all of them seemingly far more understanding of the situation. David didn’t know what this was, why it was, where it was, for whom, by whom. The Spartan shook. A shot from the Rhino Leader’s gun broke the train of thought, and 56 returned a shot, before turning to run again. Lokstok had by now made up much ground on David, with him in full view, the Brute held his Gravity Hammer clasped firmly in his claw-like fingers, so they squeezed so tightly his nails, curled over the handle, drew blood from where his palm met his thumb. The Brute saw Rhino Leader’s shot, realizing his trophy, the corpse of 56, might be at risk, he ran towards RL’s building, and took a blow at the buildings base, a mighty chunk flew out, clipping 56 in the head, sending him to the ground. The last thing David saw before it went black was the building starting to tilt. Lokstok was in a rage now, pummeling the buildings foundations, column and wall shattered as he made his way through the ground floor, before he realized the buildings now obvious slant, and sprinted for a door on the opposite side. Rhino Leader had been panicking, running from window to window and down stairways, trying to see what was causing his Buildings destruction, before jumping out one, only two stories up as the Building collapsed. Thinking both his prey now dead, Lokstok turned to the sound of an explosion, and grunt squeals and ran for the forest. Rhino Leader emerged from the rubble, his armour broken at joints, with pieces of cement embedded in it, unsure of what had destroyed the building he’d occupied, ran deeper into the city. David’s body lay meters from the building rubble, breathing hard as his eyes reopened. The Spartan watched both the individuals who’d attacked him walk away and as he realized his current position, lying on the ground behind the both of them, scrambled to his feet and again took to running, finding it preferable over shooting one, to have the other attack back in realization.

David eventually made his way back to the forest, heading in the direction of a large stone tower that appeared somewhat concealed by trees, despite the fact it was slightly taller than them. Around this tower was a small clearing, and here David stood, as he turned at the sound of two distinct roars, one more a high pitch shriek, but both were becoming louder. The ground itself started to shake beneath 56’s feet as a large blurred blob rolled out of the bushes. Nogard was ontop of the Test Subject, his claws digging into the Subject’s shoulders as it had Nogard in something of a bear hug., before a crack echoed out from Nogards back, and the Test Subject threw Nogards body to the ground, before turning over, pushing himself up and catching sight of David, it’s entire body bloodied and pulsating. The Test Subject ran at him, as 56 inturn tried to run into the tower, where two figures looked down upon them. Nogard had also gotten back up by now, it’s spine shifting back into place, as it let out another ear piercing shriek, only to receive a fire-ball to the face from the Athenian, perched atop the tower. Nogard hissed, as he spread his wings, and charged up, towering over the cloaked figure, and the man behind him. Nogard stretched his mouth, prepared to bite the Athenians head off, only for another fireball to burst from the Athenians hands, and into Nogards throat, causing it to shriek in pain, and stumble back, only for another flurry of fireballs to send it off the edge, where it landed behind the Test Subject, as it raised it’s fist to the door of the Tower, where the Spartan was hiding. One punch caved in the metal door, causing it to bend, and break it’s connections to the walls, as it flew into the stairs that 56 was already ascending. The Test Subject couldn’t fit through the doorway he’d made, so putting his hands on either side, it proceeded to tear down much of that side of the Tower, causing it to lean. The Athenian, slipped in the little blood on the tower roof, causing him to fall off the side, where he landed on his feet, meters from Nogards body as it was healing, spreading it’s wings in anticipation of the need to retreat, though Brandon Rebuga, his companion, had succeeded in keeping hold of one of the Towers battlements. Eventually as the Test Subject finally succeeded in squeezing itself inside the tower, it collapsed, ontop of him. Nogard and the Athenian had escaped the falling rubble, both standing side by side looking on at it, before realizing each others presence. Nogard spread a folded wing, it’s clawed edge thrusting towards the Athenian, who backflipped out of it’s path, whilst shooting several firballs at the creature, who merely shook the injuries off. Their battle slowly edged towards the rubble, where the top-half of 56, remained, watching them. A large fist also burst out from under the rubble, as the Test Subject emerged, it’s wounds starting to heal, as it looked at Nogard and Athenian fight, before charging directly at them, and Spear-tackling Nogard back into the forest.

Brandon Rebuga got up, having been unscathed by the towers collapse, he slowly walked over to 56, who recognized him as a UNSC officer, “Sir, a little help?” 56 croaked out, as Brandon walked over and held out his hand. The Spartan grabbed it, and was steadily pulled out of the rubble, “Thank you sir, can I ask you a question?”
Brandon made something of a hissing sound, before spitting at the dirt. “If you’re wonderin’ bout that man over there, first chance I get, I’m gonna take him down.” Rebuga whispered to 56, as he shook dust off, “But for now, he’s too useful an asset.”
56 nodded, before thanking the commander and sprinting back off into the forest.

Bergenond and Ldfo’ had continued to stumble through the forest, away from the snow covered mountains base. Both were reasonably wounded, but both agreed on safety in the thickness of the woods. Their previous battle, in which the majority of their companions died, was a result of selecting a place to hide, as the same place had been thought of by others, and thus the two Elites had it in their minds that they wouldn’t let it happen again.

Mellisa woke up, noting the small puddle of blood she was lying in. The last thing she could remember was being stabbed by that Elite, whose body she found to be next to her, riddled with bullets and with a somewhat crushed head. Pulling herself up, she glanced around for Kain, whispering his name to herself. Mellisa started to run in a circle around the area her last battle occurred, steadily rising the volume of the whisper to a shriek as thousands of thoughts of what could’ve happened to the man she loved crossed her mind, and to an onlooker, she may have seemed insane. Indeed temporarily she may have been, though Melissa eventually curled herself up on the ground, her back against a large rock, and slowly attempted to regain her cool, though two Elites erupting from the shrubs directly infront of her immediately and fully disrupted this method of self-recollection, and with a shriek of “GET THE F*** AWAY FROM ME YOU B******** YOU MOTHER F***ING B*******!”
She pulled back her two SMG’s and opened fired, the bullets going wide, from her current lack of focus, though a few managed to hit the somewhat surprised Elite in Gold.
Both these Elites in response drew their carbines, though in the process released their grip on each other, something that had been helping keep them stable all this time. Ldfo instantly collapsed from lack of balance, though Bergenond continued to stand, firing at the screaming human, in specialized UNSC Pilot uniform. His shots also went somewhat astray, as his limp had left him slanting to the left, a slant his gun and thus shots also followed. As the shots from the carbine impacted on the large rock next to her, Melissa stood up, her mind something of a jumbled mess, her voice screaming profanities almost at as large a volume as the amount of tears streaming down beneath her facemask. Her SMG’s continued their relentless burst of firepower as she steadily broke into a sprint towards the gold Elite, who’s shield was by now drained, though Bergenond landed a shot into her shoulder before she was within five metres of him, sending her onto her back and skidding along the ground, till she stopped, colliding with a tree, a mere metre from the Elite. Ldfo had by now also gotten to his feet, and gotten used to standing unaided, and eyed the Human lying before him, as she shakily raised an SMG holding hand, pulling the trigger on the unshielded Elite, it clicked, out of ammo. Ldfo and Bergenond steadily approached her as she seemed to go limp. The two Elites kept their Carbines trained on her, as they noted other grievous wounds on her person. Melissa watched the two blurs grow before her, and tightened her grip on her other hand, before swinging it around firing off the few bullets that SMG had left, these succeeded in penetrating the Gold Elite, whose blood sprayed over his younger comrade as Ldfo looked on in horror. Ldfo fell on his knees before Bergenonds corpse, before turning his rifle back on the Human.

By now Melissa was allready off, she was out of bullets in both her SMG’s, and had hidden herself in the bushes, some distance from the Elites. Pulling some extra ammunition from her chest strap, the Pilot took deep breaths. She’d regained her cool.

Jueqe turned to the his companions, the Elite-Prophet Hybrid Ameigh Broley and the Imperial Admiral Dyr’Jar Refos to ask something that had been worrying him since their battle with the parasitic flood, “How did the Parasite get here, and spread so fast?”

Refos seemed to stare off, also seemingly befuzzled by this topic, before the short silence was broken by the Hybrid Ameigh, “I saw one of them in the room where we all awoke, it must have metamorphosised into a carrier and released infection forms to feast upon the bodies that are surely plentiful here.” To which the other elite, Jueqe nodded in agreement, though Refos continued to stare off, before breaking into a sprint through the forest. His companions stared at each other before following.

“What is it Shipmaster?” Jueqe asked as he caught up to him.
“There is a Brute, beyond here towards the clearing at the end of this passage of trees”
“How…are you certain?”
“I heard it roar.”

Lokstok looked down at the bodies before him, that of an Elite, two humans and a broken Monitor, as well as bullet holes littering the area. He let out another roar, angry he missed what looked to have been some fun. Sniffing the blood off the rocks he noted there to be some survivors and gritted his teeth as he prepared to stalk, only for a trio of Elites to appear from the forest to his side. Ameigh let loose a burst from her Gravity Rifle as Lokstok lept behind the rock and Refos and Jueqe ran forwards swords drawn. Lokstok elbowed Refos in the gut as he came around, before letting his Gravity hammer loose upon Jueqe, who, though succeeded in blocking it was nonetheless thrown back. Refos lunged at the white brute from behind, though Lokstok sidestepped the attack, as Ameigh let loose another shot from her Rifle, hitting Refos in the head, greatly draining his shield, in time for Lokstok to trip him onto the floor, grabbing hold of his head and activating the small energy blade attached to his wrist, though as Jueqe returned with a long stroke from his sword, Lokstok was forced to let go and defend with his Wrist Blade. Ameigh strained to get her aim right as Jueqe and Lokstok fought, though after getting his opponents sword caught with his own, Lokstok pummeled his opponent back with a thrust from the head of his hammer in his other hand, sending Jueqe again onto his back. Ameigh again shot, this time hitting the brute in the leg, drawing blood. Lokstok ran for Ameigh, who drew her sword in anticipation, as the Brute lifted Jueqes body with one hand, using him as something of a shield, though as he ran past Refos, the elite latched onto both his legs, tripping him over. The Brute turned to look upon Refos, veins visible beneath the fur, before turning to block a slice from Ameigh. The Brute forced her back as he got up; shaking the two elite bodies off him. Pushing Ameigh back with his Hammer, he proceeded to go upon one knee and thrust his Wrist blade into Jueqe’s throat as he lay on the ground. Refos had also gotten up by now, and stood next to Ameigh, prepared to face they’re towering foe.

Ameigh attacked first, though the Brutes hammer easily blocked the hasty swing. Refos came in directly after with a stab that seemed to slide to a halt as the Brute forced his sword down with his Wrist Blade. The Hybrid had by now flipped behind the Brute and stabbed him in the shoulder, causing the furred monstrosity to let loose a roar of pain, as it reached back grabbing Ameigh by her waist lifting her over him, smashed her into the ground. Her Gravity Rifle came loose, and the Brute kicked it away as he got up.

Refos again struck out, but Lokstok’s wrist blade knocked back Refos’s blow, and grabbing the Elite’s arm Lokstok followed through with his Gravity Hammer grasped only in his right hand. It smashed into the Elite’s head and Refos’s hand hardened into a death grip on his sword, as his head was quickly mushed by the Brutes Weapon. Refos’s skull seemed to fragment beneath it and liquids of all kind seemed to pour out of every hole in his head, though chunks of his skull remained broken up and moved around, leaving his face a distorted mess. Grabbing hold of him with his left hand, Lokstok lobbed Refos’s body at Ameigh, still struggling to get up, it hit her with a thwack, forcing her down, and as she strained to lift it up with her feet she could hear the Brute walking over towards her. She pushed Refos’s limp body up high above her with her feet as she heard the whooshing of the Gravity Hammer coming down. The Hammers head burst through the limp body, releasing it’s “pulse” inside it. The body exploded in a fountain of blood and bones and veins, drenching the combatants. Ameigh reacted quickly though, as unlike her opponent she expected this, and quickly riposted with her sword as she leapt off the ground, causing a singeing gash across the Brutes chest. Startled Lokstok elbowed her back down, though noting her formidable reaction time, before noticing the arm of Dyr’Jar Refos still clutching it’s sword descending from the sky. Lodging his hammers head in the ground he flipped himself so his feet were in the air, whilst holding himself off the ground by his weapon, and caught the Elites arm in his feet, proceeding to tear the arm off it’s precious possession using his ambidextrous feet, before returning to the ground on one foot. Ameigh looked on in wonder from down in the dirt, at how such a large beast could perform such majestic acrobatics, as it stood infront of her, Gravity hammer in one hand, Wrist blade on the other and her friends Energy sword clutched in one of his feet.

She lept up again, parrying off the energy sword, before knocking back the Wrist Blade and ducking from the Grav Hammer, all the while steadily edging closer to the Brute. The two combatants seemed like a blur, with Lokstoks many weapons pouring upon Ameighs skillful defense in an absolute flurry for several seconds, beforen the Hybrid quickly tapping away both the sword and blade in milliseconds proceeded to pull herself onto the Brutes Gravity Hammer as it swung past her, from where she delived a kick to his head, causing his balance to tip, though similtanously throwing Ameigh backwards onto her side.

“You are a worthy warrior, though I’m afraid I never did see you amongst the Covenant ranks.” Ameigh shouted at the Brute, without realizing she’d raised her voice as she got onto her knees, her hands moving behind her.

The Brute grunted before letting out a slurred response “And you, though I must say I’m most disappointed the two most pitiful scum in the universe decided to cross-breed.”

“I’m not a result of some un-holy cross species relation Jiranhae, I’m a hybrid experiment, breed solely for my skills.”

The Brute let out something of a roar that Ameigh from her knowledge knew as a Brute laugh “I see, and look where your “superior skills” have gotten you, drenched in the remains of your comrades looking your death in the eye!”

A smile had been steadily crossing Ameigh’s face the entire conversation, until now her face looked full of glee, something the Brute had found more and more disturbing the longer the conversation carried on. She had been reaching back for her Gravity Rifle, which had been knocked away earlier in the battle, now her hand clasped around it, she quickly whipped it around to face the Brute whose face suddenly seemed pale despite the thick coating of hardening blood on it. Ameigh released a quick burst of fire at the Brute who attempted to activate his invincibility shielding, but as all his limbs were full of weapons, his wrist blade only stabbed himself in the chest, causing him to wince in pain before receiving several shots in the gut as bands of white enveloped him, and collapsing in a pool of blood.

As Ameigh got up and walked away the Brute gasped, accidentally sucking in a bone fragment from Refos’s remains causing the large figure to roll around in the pool of blood choking. Lokstoks spat the small chunk of bone out, shaking as he reached for his Hammer; he had succeeded in activating his invincibility shielding milliseconds before the shots hit him, though he did collapse from stabbing himself in the process. Using his hammer as leverage he pulled himself up, and watched as Ameigh Broley now a distant figure disappeared, content for now to lick his wounds.

Episode 7: So Ends...

Brian Hankel watched the dim sunset barely visible through the mass of trees, as he continued walking at a slow pace, with the two High Ranking Officers behind him, both nervously eyeing the surrounding bushlands.
“How many do you guys reckon are left?” Brian stated casually, tilting his head back to the officers.
Leon let out a nervous laugh “Most of my boys for sure, saw a couple of them when we started this thing.”
“Kids?” Brian asked, his attention now somewhat more obvious.
“No, just …some people I used to work with” Leon replied, as his eyes caught sight of Hankels gloved hands tightening their grip on his gun.
“Good, wouldn’t want anyone turning on us to please their lil ‘uns”
Stephen Chow had been backing from the two, his eyes shifting from one to the other as he realized the slight tension that had been building over the course of the conversation.
“At least ‘kiddies” would be more mature then to let such a matter be involved in a life or death situation.” Leon retorted, raising his head, as though to look down upon the marine.
“At least they’d know right from wrong, such as unspoken agreements against, oh I don’t know, turning on an ally.” Hankel grunted back as the two locked eyes, both with weapon in hand, though lowered. Chow continued to slowly pace back, before coming to a halt as his back collided with the Mjolinar Armour of SPARTAN-064.
“Hi there.” The Spartan said, in a surprisingly joyful tone, as under his helmet, a thick grin had sprang across his face, as the Spartan lowered his weapon.
“Oh, thank science a Spartan, can you help us?” Chow yelped, glee pouring from his voice.
“Sure.” 64 nodded, as his head started to tilt and his left hand revealed a grenade, its pin already pulled out. Chow failed to notice it till it had been shoved into his gut, and with a powerful kick, the Officer was sent onto his back, grenade clasped in his hands.
The other two looked over at the sound of the explosion, with part of Chows small intestine hitting Leon in the face. The officer tried to brush it off with his sleeve, only to mush it into his hair.
“What the f***?” Brian swore, aiming his gun near the explosion, as two figures appeared from the trees, illuminated by the flaming chunks of Chow.
Brian open fired upon them, though they made a strange metallic clinking noise, as Hank Wimbleton the fourth and SPARTAN-077 neared them.
“Where’s the other SPARTAN!” 77 yelled at the marine.
“Who are you, did you do this?” Leon yelled back, only now realizing Chows fate.
“No, we’re looking for the one who did, Spartan 64.” Hank replied
“I don’t believe this shit!” Leon yelled raisng his pistol at the seemingly unarmoured man, though his shot also made the similar chink noise, as with lightening speed the mans Katana was positioned defensively before him, the bullet, lodged in its blade. Hank sprinted for the elderly man, leaping as he neared him, and seemed to tackle Leon with his knees, forcing him to the ground, the side of his sword at the Officers jugular. Brian Hankel now aimed his gun at Hank, though realized his mistake as 77 was upon him, his gun at the back of Brian’s head.
“Drop the gun…Where is the other Spartan.” 77 repeated to Brian.
“We didn’t see him, please, we’re human too, let’s settle this with civility, we can help you, eh?” Leon begged as he placed his pistol on the ground.
Hank laughed, though unwilling to end their lives, he couldn’t see how much more good they could do for them still breathing, look how easily they just captured the pair.
“What do you think? A couple more eyes?” Hank grunted at his companion.
“More hands to hold more knives, though those knives could backstab.” 77 replied, as he forced Brian to his knees.
“We won’t do anything like that; we’re honest gents like you two!” Leon yelled, as he felt the hair on his neck being shaved off by his captor’s blade.
Hank helped up the officer, “We’ll let you two wander by yourselves, you might at least eliminate some of the competition.”
77 released the marine, who quickly scrambled for his gun, before running back into the forest, with Leon following closely behind.
“I doubt they can handle any of the other competitors still living by now, did you see how easily we got them?...at the most their screams will alert us to an opponents location.” 77 said, as he walked up next to Hank, his red glasses gleaming against the sunset.
“I wouldn’t kill them yet, they were unarmed, prisoners…” Hank responded, to which 77’s reply was merely a nod, before noting footprints from the explosion, motioning Hank to follow, and dashing back into the thick woods.

Spartan-64 laughed as he sprinted through the trees, hopping over roots and swinging from the side of trees, he felt free, emotionally that is, no-longer pressured into war, he could fight now by his choice alone, and fight his own way against whoever he wanted. And to think, the prize he’d receive for doing this, this of all things was already like a gift to him, as he continued his journey through the forest. A pair of flood sprang from the bushes before him, but he did not fear them, barely blinked, just kept running and pulled out his Assault Rifle as they were at his sides, and with a graceful bound, he flipped himself over them and doused them in bullets, leaving the pair of combat forms to rot where they fell.

Lokstok sniffed the air, the smell of blood surrounding him, his blood, those two humans blood, the blood of the Elites covered the area and the smell of his own blood. That freak nearly killed him, but there was more prey running around these parts, less likely to put up such a hard fight. The large brute gazed at the many bullets lying around, his fur, covered in stained patches of red and purple. He was too visible here, and still heavily wounded, with blood still oozing a little from his chest and a scab the size of a humans fist clotting together the fur on his shin. The Brute pulled himself over to a bush, and plucking a thorn, attached it to a small vine that was tangled around a tree. Using this method, he’d spent an hour sewing together the chest wound, before catching the scent of the humans, that he’d by now familiarized himself with, and setting off into the forest to track them down, stepping on a small Black Box.

The black box crackled as a glowing Orb materialized from the boxes shadow “I see, so, some may know…this game was getting tiresome anyway, I think it may be time to remedy both situations…as soon as I stop talking to myself.” Before sinking back into the darkness. The box let loose several sparks, before releasing a slight pulse, unnoticeable by the combatants, who merely saw the leaves rustle, though it would be heavily noticed soon.

The infection form scuttled into the clearing, finding the only untouched bodies remaining, though it was substantially more than when the Brute left. Substantially, by say, the hundreds.

Melissa crawled on her gut through the bushes, away from the bewildered Elite she’d left mourning. There was the cracking of twigs, and she stopped as a green armoured boot gleamed before her. Feeling sure she was hidden from this individual, Melissa held her breath, only to watch the boot be quickly followed by the rest of the amour of James Davis as crouched down to greet the woman lying down in the bushes, who was now aiming a pair of smgs at him.
“Hey…uh, I’m not a hostile, uh…please, can you lower your weapons, see my guns down... do you want a hand up?” James managed to mumble out, somewhat put off by the two barrels aimed at his face, though these worries eased as the woman gave him a hand to which he helped her up.
“James Davis, Team Alpha.” James said, in as militaristic a voice he could put on, though Melissa shrugged it off, and just looked around, as though she was searching for some invisible foe.
“Uh… you have quite a few nasty wounds on you, don’t you.”
“Shut up”
“I can help you with those, it could get infected or something.”
“I said shut up, we’re here against some of the most skilled combatants in the Galaxy, we could be killed any minute, and you’re just trying to chat, pick up your gun, we’ve got to move.”

Grutto could only watch in horror from what would have been above the clearing as the mountain of bodies poured over the hillside towards him, the Grunt cowered next to a tree, as it looked on, at the lifeless corpses rolling over the side, when he could’ve sworn one near the top, still until now, moved, not a motion of physics, such as the rolls of the others, but more a twitch. But of course the Grunt was to cowardly to check, instead running for dear life away from the place.

“Hurry up!” Leon yelled, as Brian stumbled over the roots before him.
“Shut up old-timey, I’m moving as fast as your heart.”
Leon gritted his teeth at this, and began having second thoughts about shooting his companion, only for those thoughts to come to quick halt as a swarm of Flood burst from the bushes. Nearly twenty, the two came to a stop and stared open-mouthed at the enemies encroaching upon them, before quickly turning heel and sprinting back the way they came.

Hank raised his head at the sound of the duos screams, “Told you they’d alert us to a real threat.” Hank said, a smile hidden by his bandages, as he sprinted towards the source of the yelling, the Spartan close behind him.

Brian and Leon had gotten themselves side to side, running backwards as they tried to shoot down the flood, though they’d only succeeded in killing four so far, though they were quickly saved the trouble of having to kill to many more as Hank burst through the bushes, Katana in hand, his arms soon blurring into a flurry with almost perfect precision, cutting the flood in half at the infection spore. Hank looked like a blur, spinning and flipping around the mob of Combat forms, killing fourteen of them before they could even land a hit. 77 burst through soon after Hank had cut through several of the parasite, and released a round into the mass of bodies, as Brian and Leon did the same, eventually leaving the four alone surrounded by chunks of corpses.
“Oh man, I knew you guys wouldn’t just abandon us like that, thanks for saving us.” Brian gasped to the two figures that stood eyeing what remained of the flood.
“If the flood are here, and so numerous we may need you after all.” Hank whispered, almost to himself.
“Surely those would’ve been all the dead combatants, didn’t you see how many there were?” Leon stated, stomping on an Infection form, squirming inside its dismembered host.
“Never mind, you don’t know what we know, and we’d prefer you didn’t, wouldn’t we?” Spartan-077 said, motioning in Hanks direction, who nodded in agreement.
“Just be prepared, you won’t know what to expect in this place.”

Lokstok and the Spartan stood, eye to eye, as the Spartan was standing atop a tree branch, both waiting for the other to make the first move.
“You look like a remarkably tough fellow, no?” 64 said, in a tone of elegance that surprised himself.
“Bah! Demon, lowering yourself to try and appease me into sparing you, I will have none of it!” The blood stained Brute growled, raising his Hammer to strike at the Spartan, only to find 64’s shotgun was lodged in his maw.
“I suggest you reconsider, I can see a great use for you in helping me deal with a…certain problem.” The Spartan said, retaining the tone of voice from earlier. The surprised Brute looked the Spartan up and down, before pulling back from the shotguns barrels and reaching for his outstretched hand.

David, stopped at the sight of another Spartan, though G23 quickly raised his weapon, “Easy, I’m a Spartan!” David yelped, though G23 continued to pace towards him, keeping his aim on David’s head.
“I know you’re a Spartan, dressed like that, what else would I think you were, a Grunt? I want your number.”
“Uh.. I’m SPARTAN-056, David…look, lower the gun, don’t be like this, we’re kin, looks like different projects, but we’re humans, we’re super-soldiers.”
G23 lowered his gun, “I know super-soldiers, a super-soldier just killed several humans and destroyed probably my only means of escaping this hell-hole.”
David couldn’t think of a response to this, except to walk over and clasp the Spartan on the shoulder, “I’m sorry…I’m not like that, c’mon, can’t we watch each others back?”
G23 grunted, and walked off into the forest, leaving David to glance around, and as he caught a glimpse of the pink sky, David turned and bolted after G23, who was now running.
“What is it, why the rush?” David managed to stutter out as he caught up.
“I hear gunshots.”

Melissa nodded and motioned for James to follow as she began to sprint through the forest, “You sure you heard a fight? That way?”
James nodded, “We can pick off the winner no? There was three guns I heard, so at the most, we’ll be facing two, right?”
“That’s the plan Jamie, the plan.”

G256, better known as Matt, heard the distant sound of a distant gunfight, he could make out at least two different guns, not to far from his current position, and steadily started to accelerate into a crouched sprint.

His gun out of battery, Grutto tried throwing it at the flood, as it neared him, seeing no other option, the Grunt mournfully pulled out a pair of plasma Grenades, one in each hand, and ran at the combat form.

The Athenian turned at the sound of the explosion, “Hmph, first sound of a fight in a while, Eama, let us move.”

“Fine, leave me here, you murderer.” Gary whispered through tears, as Eaite slowly walked away.
“You should consider yourself thankful I’m not killing you as well.”
“Thankful? You killed my friends after I saved you, and now your just going to abandon me?”
“You’ve become a burden, I do not want to be forced to babysit you out of honour, so I’ve left you in an area that I assure you is safe for a kilometer around, if we meet again, I will not harm you, this is all I can do.” Eaite replied, before sprinting into the shadows of the trees, and disappearing.

“Hi there!” A Spartan squealed as Matt emerged through the shrubs before him.
“Uh...hey, was that you shooting?”
“Oh yea, and now that I think of it, I will again, now… Lokstok?”
Matt felt a large Brute fist clasp upon his shoulder, as the Brute stepped out from the shadows diagonally behind him, Spartan 64 checked his shotgun as he slowly walked up to the Spartan., “so, my fellow Spartarino, what a coincidence that we’ve both stumbled into each other like this.”
“You were just firing your different guns to try and catch someone weren’t you.”
“Well, yes, though admittedly, the real gunfight going on a mile south probably attracted more than this, I’m glad we got such a caught such a fine specimen.”
The brute seemed to chuckle at this, and Matt seeing an opportunity quickly raised his rifle, only for it to be quickly beaten from his hands by the butt of 64’s shotgun, and in response the Brute grasped Matt by the arms, pulling them back and releasing a deep growl.
“No, your not allowed to do any of that sort now… for now, you are going to- ” Spartan 64 was cut off, as Matt lodged his boot in 64’s crotch, causing the Spartan to collapse, letting out a gasp of “No fair…”
Lokstok, still with the Spartan in his grasp, lifted him several feet into the air, visibly straining from the Spartans weight, as Matt’s legs flailed, attempting to get the Brute in the head. With tremendous force, the Brute smashed the Spartan into a Tree, keeping Matt in his grasp, he smashed him into the tree again until it splintered. After several hits, with his shields drained, the Spartan wrapped his legs around the cracking tree, and proceeded to headbutt the Brute, with the back of his helmet, finally causing the white furred beast to let go. Falling to the ground, Matt unholstered his Battle Rifle, and aimed for the Brute, only to again be thrown into the tree. Spartan-064 stood over Matt’s blood splattered corpse, his shotgun still smoking.

The Gravemind quivered in what used to be a clearing, it had been given hundreds of bodies, and put them to good use, making itself a small army to go take care of the final threats on the Island, many of whom, were likely still fighting each other. When all threats were defeated, it alone would receive the reward, and would wreck havoc upon the Universe.

James and Melissa came across a somewhat peculiar scene, given the circumstances, in a tournament where everyone is meant to battle each other to the death, here was a group of 6, 8 if they were included, united against a single common foe. Half the group had been drawn there by the other halves battle with the flood, and the one known as Hank revealed to the others that he believed that the Flood had been given an unfair advantage in this Tournament, and that they may have to take on a Gravemind and a small army of parasites, and that if it were to win this tournament, an Invincible army of Flood would be what the universe would have to deal with, as upon infection, the combat forms became one with the gravemind, thus each single individual flood specimen could take out entire armies on it’s own, and thus this could be the end of all known life. That was why the group was united there, the eight of them were bound together to stop the parasite. Eight against hundreds for the fate of life. To many it didn’t seem like to fair a fight.

Ameigh Broley continued to wade through the increasingly large pile of corpses as the Flood ran, nigh endlessly at her. Her Gravity Rifle had fired a few shots too many, as it made sickening crack noise, forcing Ameigh to back away from the flood and she realized she was wishing Ryfos was still around to aid her.

Eaite caught sight of the Hybrid, before she saw him, and watched her fighting the Flood for several minutes, before she began her sprint for safety. Here Eaite stepped in, his cloaking activated, Ameigh turned to what seemed to be the Flood falling en masse for no reason. Eaite was swinging his Energy Sword wildly through the flood mob, as it tried to rush past this invisible guardian. Eaite, threw his Needler at the Hybrid, who quickly picked it up, finally realizing the existence of the cloaked Elite, and proceeded to run towards him, unloading clips of Needles into the pack of parasite, until they’d been beaten aback.
“Thank you for your aid, noble warrior” Ameigh bowed her head to the Elite.
“Do not mention it, for I have heard much of your exploits, that is, if you are the one known as Ameigh Broley.”
“That is I, and you?”
“Eaite Oodat of the Sangheli Super Soldier Program.” Eaite said, somewhat proudly, as Ameigh again bowed her head to him, before giving him back his Needler, picking up her Grav Rifle and fiddling with it’s clip, “We must go, we should cleanse this place of the parasite, from here it can only grow weaker.”

Hank J Wimbleton IV, walked down the natural path made by the trees, back towards the clearing, from where the flood had sprung from, or at least that’s what their prints had led him to believe. Closely behind him stood several other humans, Spartans 56, 77 and G23, Pilot Melissa Harverd, James Davis of Team Alpha, Commander Leon Polski and Sergeant Bryan Hankel. Hank raised a fist to signal the group to stop, before motioning for them all to split up, so as to surround the clearing, as per their plan for taking on the small Gravemind and its forces.

Hank drew his sword, backed by 77, as they neared the Flood, which was obvious by the stench of rotting bodies. Several parasites ran at them from the clearing, though they were quickly cut down by Hanks Katana before they could release a sound.

Leon and G23 slowly edged within view of the clearing, as did Melissa and James, who they kept within earshot. G23 readied a frag, as did most of the others surrounding the clearing, with Hank keeping them in time by waving his Katana in the air. As the Katana fell, seven Grenades were pegged into the midst of the flood, who at first failed to notice them as another seven fell down to them, then the original seven exploded, and as the Flood combat forms started to emerge from the clearing, the second seven also detonated, sending many pieces of parasites in many directions.

G23 and Leon clambered over bodies as their guns continuously spewed bullets into the oncoming mob. Every now and then a Flood would try and leap over to them, though G23 quickly unholstered his pistol, still firing his rifle single-handedly, and would take down the Flood mid-air with a clean shot. As the pair made their way forward a whip like appendage burst from through the flora, tying itself around Leon’s neck and dragging him into the clearing, as he dropped his gun and started kicking his legs wildly, his hands desperately clawing at the rotting skin wrapped around his neck, though his struggle was cut short as he was dragged into the mob of combat forms unarmed, and was quickly and noisily torn apart.
G23 stared at Leon as he quickly disappeared, before kicking down a Flood that’d run up to him, turning to the others and yelling, “Oh shit….You Lot! The Gravemind feels like fighting!”

Eaite and Ameigh had fought their way to the top of the hill, from which the flood had been pouring down, and could now see the Gravemind, a little shorter than the hill they stood upon, but still towering, and being shot at by several small figures down below, who were still hiding amongst the trees. Ameigh gave Eaite a smile, the ready for fun? kind, before sprinting over the top of the hill, drawing her energy sword, and landing on the Graveminds back. Eaite turned and watched the combat forms nearing him, before following Ameigh onto the beasts back. The pair, swords drawn, hacked viciously into the Graveminds “head” as several Combat forms also made the leap onto the humongous parasite.

Hank, barely making out the two figures ontop of the Gravemind, realized the two were probably on the track to the most likely way to defeat the Gravemind, “Everyone cover me, form a defensive circle at the base of that monster, backs to it!” Hank yelled, as 77 tilted his head, as a sign of confusion.
“Just do it.” Hank mumbled, as he ran at the Gravemind Katana drawn and slashing at the few combat forms in his way. Reaching the bulk, Hank jumped onto it, Lodging his Katana in it’s side and managing to swing himself into a handstand on it’s hilt, before flipping back onto his feet ontop of his sword. Burying a fist into the Creature his ankles wrapped around his sword, pulling it out, moving it up, and sticking it back in, as another whip like appendage came for him, only for it be shot limp by James Davis’s rifle, as the Alpha Team Leader joined the others at the Graveminds base.

Hank made his way to the top of the Floods Monstrous Leader, where he sighted an Elite, and another strange being who looked similar to an Elite, desperately hacking at Combat forms, with a small ditch behind them, that’d been cut into the back of the Graveminds head. Hank rushed to the Aliens side, “One of you have Plasma Grenades? Finish the hole, I’ll aid in keeping back the torrent.” To which Eaite nodded, somersaulting back to the steaming gap, and stabbing deep with his plasma sword.

Below those shooting the Flood found themselves running low on ammunition, with both Brian and Melissa out and forced to take spare weapons from the SPARTANS. There was now at least a foot high pile of bodies before the group, and James jumped ontop of several of the cadavers to get a cleaner shot, only for a sickly yellow arm to burst from the pile, clamping itself on James’s leg, forcing him to shoot around his feet in a desperate bid to rid himself of this unseen threat, though as he lowered his aim a several Combat forms lunged for him, with a scream of “Davis!” Melissa emptied a clip into the pack mid-air, though it took down two of the flood, it didn’t take down the other three, who quickly over-powered James, taking him to the ground. James rolled ontop of the pile of bodies, against these three foes, burying his fist in one of the Infection forms, as Melissa also hopped onto the pile, her gun still blazing, shooting off another combat form, though several dived on Davis, and he disappeared under the squirming mass of bodies, Melissa steadily paced back to the others, firing upon the mob.

Ameigh turned in time to see the Graveminds whip-like “arm” a moment to late, as it collided with her, sending her off the beasts back, though she landed on a somewhat cushiony pile of bullet ridden corpses. The Graveminds appendage followed her down, attempting to finish her off in a sweeping movement, though Ameigh was ready now and slid under it, only to watch it instead collide with a Pilot, who let out a feminine scream, as she was sent flying into a tree, her spine snapping in half upon impact. Ameigh saw several humans lined up at the Graveminds base, shooting at the few flood that remained, and Ameigh rushed to join them at their sides, her Gravity rifle, again fully functional.
“You just lost a soldier.” Ameigh said, as she neared the humans.
“I saw…I don’t care” G23 mumbled, as a floods shot up corpse crashed to the ground at his feet.

The Athenian and Eama walked around the tens of bodies that littered the area, with the Athenian shooting fire-balls at any that seemed to quiver, despite the wind. The pair soon came across several live parasites that ran at them, as the Athenian and Eama, in a surprisingly acrobatic and synchronized dash, continuously leapt over the other, Eama cutting down those who got to near, as the Athenian shot them from afar. The pair soon neared the clearing, and witnessed the Gravemind, its tentacles swinging around, trying to get at two specks on it’s head. The Athenian released a fireball, that left a large burning hole in it’s head, causing the Gravemind to shriek, and send one of it’s arms after the pair, only for it to burst into flames and fall limp, meters from the cloaked figure, and it’s Sangheli Companion. The Athenian surveyed the scene, before continuously launching flaming projectiles at the Gravemind, ordering Eama to cover him from the combat forms as they neared them.

On the Graveminds head, Hank and Eaite held on for dear life, as it swayed maddeningly as it’s skin started peeling from the heat, “This isn’t going to kill it, but if we don’t get off here now, it’ll kill us!” Hank yelled to the Elite, as he crouched, in preparation to jump off.
“I know, you should go…” Eaite said, still forcing himself in the small hole he’d carved in the Graveminds head, before turning back to Hank, “Hold on!...do you have any Grenades.”
Hank nodded, passing over a belt-full to the Elite, before the Gravemind shook him off, and Hank fell several meters, “Hey, welcome back.” 77 laughed, as Hank pulled himself up infront of him.

Eaite pulled out his own Plasma grenades, bracing himself with his legs in the ditch, as he stripped Hanks belt of it’s grenades, the shaking would throw the Grenades everywhere, so Eaite lay ontop of them in the hole, as he pulled the pins, and forced the Grenades in deeper into the Monster, holding them in place with his own body.

The Graveminds head exploded, and it collapsed in a heap, crushing most of the remaining floods, as the others were quickly shot down by the people below. The Athenian turned as he watched the Gravemind collapse, signaling for Eama to follow, though the Elite hesitated, as he saw the people gathering around the monsters corpse, before turning back to the cloaked figure, and hurrying after him.

Gary wandered in circles around the area Eaite had left him, mumbling to himself, every now and then letting out a sob, before stopping as large shadow fell over him. He turned at the sight of the blood-stained Brute, who seemed to smile as his large hand fully grasped over the Marines head, and lifted him off his feet. Gary tried to fire his gun, only for it to be quickly slapped out of his hands by the Brute, whose grip tightened, his clawed hands drawing blood, amongst other liquids from the Marines head, as his muffled screams wailed through the large hand clamped on his mouth, before his body went limp, and the Brute tossed him aside.
“Hmm…you’re lucky that one wasn’t much of a fighter.” Spartan 64 sighed as he walked by Lokstok.
“He was the lucky one; I could’ve made it much worse for him.”
The Spartan sighed, before raising his eyes, focusing on an unusual darkness amongst the trees. The Spartan raised his shotgun, and the Brute, followed suite, his Hammer drawn, as a fireball shot out of the trees, leaving a charred hole in the ground where it landed. The Athenian and an Elite walked out from the shadows, the cloaked one, seemingly unarmed, whilst Eama had both his needler and sword drawn. Spartan-64 fired several shots at these aggressors, though they seemed to go wide, so the Spartan switched to Matts stolen Battle-rifle, more suited to the situation, as Lokstok charged at the Elite as it fired several Needles into the Brute, who inturn shook them off as he smashed his Hammer down into the ground next to the Elite, sending him into the air, though the Elite managed to twist himself around a thick branch he’d collided with, and continued to fire his needler at the Brute.

The Athenian and Spartan locked eyes as the Athenian raised his black-gloved hands, a pair of fireballs emerging from them, though the Spartan swiveled to his side, allowing both the flames to glide by him on either side, as he fired at the Athenian, clipping his collar-bone, “Hey! You’ve got some pretty useful talent there!” The Spartan shouted at his opponent, to which the only reply was a self-assured grunt.
“How’d you like to join me and my buddy here, I mean, look at who you’re pairing up with!” The Spartan motioned to the Elite, clinging to the tree-branch, as below Lokstok smashed the trees trunk with his hammer, “I mean, we have skills, think about it, you’ve seen some of the other guys around here, there must have seemed to be a few tough-ones, no?”
The Athenian nodded, lifting an arm to his side, releasing a fireball that shot Eama out of the tree, leaving him sizzling on the ground.
“Now, isn’t that better?” The Spartan smiled.
“Yes…and I know where all the others are aswell.” The Athenian responded, beneath his hood, he was also smiling, the first real smile in a long time.

“Ok, so on the count of 5, we all run away and give each other ten-minutes, before we start killing each other again, I think that would be the best thing to do now…either that or we all just stick together and don’t hurt each other…you know, maybe build our own utopia place?” Spartan-56 asked to the rest of the group, though all besides Brian, who seemed enthusiastically in agreement, weren’t paying attention.
“Do you think that we’re the last people left on the Island?” Ameigh asked, as she walked up to 77.
“I doubt it… me and Hank were hunting someone before this, and I doubt he’s been killed by the Flood…unless you got to him, did you see another Spartan, before all the flood emerged?”
“No” Ameigh sighed, to which 77 nodded, and sat down on one of corpses that littered the area.

“Hey, you were with Dean, before he died, right…wait, you were the one Dean was talking to in the room, before the Island, did he tell you how to get out? How to escape?” G-23 questioned Hank, pressing his face up, close enough for Hank to see his reflection in the Spartans helmet, reddened by his glasses.
“No…there was no way, there is no way…there never was.” Hank mumbled, before stepping back from the SPARTAN-III, and taking a seat next to 77.
“What now?” 77 asked, without turning his head to Hank.
“I don’t know, leave this lot and finish hunting 64?”
“Sounds good….though we’ll have to kill this lot sooner or later if we want to win.”
“That’s the thinking that got 64 into the mess he is in now.”
“No, he got in that position because he let go of his values, he thought they didn’t matter in a world that’s not even real.” 77 said, lowereing his head further.
“Ok, the lot of you, we should all leave here, we’ll promise not start shooting any of you for about ten minutes, and then we continue this thing.” 77 shouted to the others, as he got up off the cadaver, and the two soon walked away into the forest.

David mumbled something along the lines of, “what I said..” though it was nigh inaudible, before he turned to G23 “Hey, can I go with you?”
“No” G23 replied, as he also walked away into the darkness.

David, Ameigh and Brian were left there in the clearing, the Graveminds rotting body behind them, and around them, piles of infected cadavers. The trio stood in silence, unsure of where to go from here, though this decision was made for them, as Ameigh motioned for the others to look into the darkness of the forest, before hushing them despite the lack of noise they’d made, and crouching. There the three waited, before a fireball emerged from the trees, hitting David, and sending him crashing into the Gravemind, as the Athenian emerged, a Spartan and Brute either side of him. 64 quickly raised his Battle-rifle, sending Brians brains on a similar flight path to David, leaving Ameigh somewhat astonished, to look on at the three figures before her.
“You’re still alive?” She gasped, as the Brute approached her.
“Leave me alone on this one, the two of us have a little, unfinished something to take care of.” The brute growled to the others, as the Athenian walked past him, heading towards David.

Ameigh drew her Gravity Rifle, and quickly fired several shots at the Brute, though only one shot found its mark, reopening the wound on his shoulder, a little too close to the Brutes head for his liking. Lokstok charged as Ameigh drew her sword, and their two weapons locked, with Ameigh straining to keep the Hammer above her, as the laughing Brute forced more of his weight upon it, before suddenly releasing the tension, and kicking Ameigh in the gut, sending her rolling backwards. The Brute jumped, and brought his hammer down upon the hybrid, who rolled out of the way, hopping to her feet behind the Brute and thrusting her blade at him, though the Brute in turn dodged this merely by turning to his side, and he proceeded to elbow the Hybrid as her body carried through with the stab, again sending her onto her back. The Brute’s lips curled into a twisted smile, as he looked upon his bleeding foe, when several bullets burst from the trees, missing everyone, but still occupying Lokstoks attention long enough for both Ameighs outstretched legs to release several powerful swings into the inside of the Brutes legs, before sending her heels into the Brutes kneecaps, forcing the Brute to his knees with a roar.
The Athenian and Spartan 64 looked over into the bushes, as Hank and Spartan 77 emerged, Hank immediately lunged at the Spartan with his Katana, though 64 fell to the ground, allowing the blade to pass over him, before getting back to his feet and firing his shotgun at Hank, though a strange metallic clinking noise was made, as the Sword wielding individual revealed the Katana, now with several small dents from the shot-guns blast, having moved with lightening speed to block it.
From the Athenians hands emerged a column of fire that snaked towards 77, as he shot his battle-rifle, though both projectiles missed the other, as they both jumped to their sides. The Athenian grinned, a challenge, as he shot a flurry of flame at the Spartan, who ducked, weaved and even leap-fogged over the last shot, and with a “My turn” fired a clip at the Athenian, who tried his best to melt the metal itself with a wall of flame, though two shots made their way through this protective barrier, going through his hood, with both shots in tandem, managing to severe his left ear. Thinking the Spartan still readying the next clip, the Athenian quickly lept behind the pile of parasite corpses and burnt over the blood flowing down his face, so as to stop further bleeding, before he noticed the strange rock that fell at his feet. Then the rock exploded, and the Athenian found himself bleeding even more profusely, lying next to David-56, as the Spartan got up, gun drawn, but still dazed from the Athenians earlier attack.

By now, Ameigh had wrapped herself around the back of the Brute, her legs around the Brutes waist, forcing his hammer wielding arm down with her thighs, though the Brute also had his hand grasped around her hand with her sword, and the Brute was stumbling around the corpse littered clearing trying to pry her off, as she started biting his head. The Brute howled as she managed to tear off a large clump of his hair, and much of the skin it was connected to, before he made a dash for the trees, turning moments before he collided with it, forcing the impact upon Ameigh. Ameigh let her grip on the Brute slide, and Lokstok shook her off, activating his wrist blade, and picked her up off the Ground by her neck, bringing her head close to his, as with the other hand he aimed the wrist blade right between her eyes, though the Hybrid refused to go down so easily, and kneed the Brutes arm with the Blade, before biting the arm as he raised it with her powerful mandibles, drawing blood, and forcing the Brute to drop her, as again Bullets emerged from the bushes, this time reopening the large wound on the Brutes chest, causing Lokstok to howl in pain, as he turned to face G23, this Spartan was smaller than him by several feet, and Lokstok laughed “And what will you do? Hah! Punch my shins? You couldn’t even lift this Hammer!”
At that G23 sprinted at the Brute, as Lokstok reared back his hammer before taking a swing that would’ve easily shattered a man, though the Spartan simply slid under it, before jumping from the ground onto the Brute, standing on Lokstoks shoulders the Spartan put his rifle to the astonished Brute’s forehead and shot.

The Athenian barley noticed the Brute collapse as his eyes focused on David, wandering dazed before him. The Athenian steadily raised his hand to the Spartan, as 77 saw this, from atop a mound of Infected corpses, and fired upon the Athenian, as he lay against the Gravemind, the Graveminds own skin seemingly popping as the bullets neared the Athenian, who fell to the ground, thinking himself concealed, before remembering about David, who’d by now regained his bearings, and stood over the Athenian.

Hank and 64 made their way around the clearing, circling as they circled the battle-ground, with 64 firing several times at Hank, and Hank in turn taking several lunges at the Spartan, though neither’s attempt was successful. As they neared Lokstoks body, Hank again lunged, though this time as well as dodging the blow, 64 hit Hank on the back of the head with the Butt of his Shotgun, forcing Hanks face into the Spartans knee, and thus the back of Hanks head was again hit by the Shotguns, though then Hanks face met with dirt, as it smeared across his glasses. 64 turned and fired at Ameigh as she approached him, forcing her to back off, before aiming his shotgun again at Hank, only to find the man to have disappeared.

Ameigh backed back to G23 who just looked on at the two fights, turning his head between the two, and didn’t really pay any attention to Ameigh as she approached. Though as she stood at her side, G23 quickly punched her in the head, and aimed his rifle at her as she hit the ground.
“What? I thought we had an alliance!” Ameigh screeched at her apparent betrayal.
“I don’t recall ever agreeing to such a thing, infact for memory after the Flood were defeated, we were supposed to kill each other after we all broke apart, I left, I came back, so now I can kill you.”
“This is Treachery, TREACHERY!” The Hybrid shrieked, searching for her Grav rifle, only to find it broken from her battle with the Brute, and lowered her head as G23 fired.

The Athenian shot at Davids legs, before twisting his own body, keeping his back on the ground, though his legs managed to swing around and clip the Spartans head. 77 could barely make out what was happening, though after seeing much smoke and reddish light appear from next to the Gravemind presumed things were not all well for David. His presumption was correct, as the Athenian kicked away the Spartans melted helmet, rising from behind the piles of bodies, as 77 fired mid-sprint at the Athenian, again forcing him to the ground. The Athenian raised an arm like a periscope, and shot off fireballs at random, only to feel a sharp pain in his arm, as 77 shot off his thumb. The Athenian raised himself up, and released a fire-ball the size of a pick-up truck at the Spartan, who was completely smothered by the blast, his shield completely depleted, and could feel his gloves melting to his skin. The Spartan screamed, as he rolled over bullet-ridden corpses, trying to get rid of the flame, as the Athenian approached him, and aimed a hand at the Spartan, blood dripping from where his thumb used to be, onto the Spartans helmet, only for David to pull himself back up, firing wildly, his eyes burnt shut, and his face just a horrible mess altogether, missing much skin, forcing the Athenian to fire a weak fireball at 77 quickly, before finishing David off with a column of flame that forced 56 into the Gravemind behind him. 77’s shield had been restored enough to take the fireball the Athenian had shot at him, and the Spartan got to his feet behind the cloaked figure, who turned, and the two stood face to face.
64 made his way around the plateau of bodies, only to be halted as Hank’s Katana shot out from the edge of the pile, a little more than 5 centimetres from the Spartans shins. Hank swore, he’d missed, and 64 started to fire into the bodies, in the area the Katana had come from. Hank crawled through the bodies, though 64 could easily tell where he was from the way the corpses were thrown, as the lump made it’s way through them. 64 jumped ontop of the lump, unpinning a Grenade and shoving it deep into the pile before hopping back off. Hank could feel the Grenade on his back and swore as he quickly slid his Katana along his back, cutting through his shirt and leaving a trail of blood, before it got under the Grenade and flicked it back up through the hole 64 had made. The grenade exploded, forcing Hanks head into the ground, and 64 laughed . With Hank dead, 64 stared at G23, who was applauding the Spartan, at which 64 took a bow, before quickly popping back up, his rifle aimed at G23, who had already aimed his own.
The Athenian quickly raised a hand, but 77 was faster, and the Athenian fell over, blood leaking out from his hood as 77 lowered his Battle-Rifle and turned to watch the very much alive Hank slowly creep up upon 64, as 64 was locked in a gun-fight with G23. 64 felt a sharp pain, and looked down at the Katana’s tip, prodding through his chest. Hank put his foot to the Spartans back, and pushed him off the end of his sword, before beheading 64, just before his body hit the ground. Hank stood, the third corner of a triangle formed by himself, G23 and 77, all with their weapons drawn, and all eyeing each other. 77 and G23 nodded, and both aimed their guns at a surprised Hank, who tried to fend off the bullets that were being shot at him, though he reacted with super-humanly fast speed, he couldn’t fend off two guns, and Hank collapsed, with 18 new holes in him.
“Nice work, thanks for agreeing to take down the biggest threat.’
“It was a nessecity, as it is now for this.” G23 said as he aimed his gun at 77.
“I know…but let us make this fast.”
G23 and 77 both fired upon each other, as they circled each other, breaking into a sprint as the circle spiraled inwards, both of them had completely drained each others shield, and the two were both out of ammo, refusing to give the other the chance if they dropped their guard to refill their gun, the two collided with 77’s knee keeping back G23, as he tried to bash the SPARTAN-II with his rifle. 77 pushed G23 back, as the SPARTAN-III reached back for his pistol, again trying to hit 77 with his rifle, though his jaw instead met with the butt of 77’s Battle rifle, and G23 fell to the ground as he fired his pistol into the unshielded Spartan, and the Spartans chest and head recieved two bullet-holes.

G23 got to his feet, his arms out-stretched expectantly, and he stood there like that for several minutes, before yelling “COME ON! EVERONES DEAD ORB, GET ME OUT OF HERE!”

Ldfo wandered back to the smouldering ruins of the Cabin in the snow covered mountain. “No one here either…where is everyone? I’ve been wandering for a day!” Ldfo wondered as he made his way back down the mountain.
G23 paced around what used to be the clearing, mumbling to himself “There must be more still alive, but this island is huge, how will I ever find those who remain.” G23 rushed into the forest, he had a day to search the Island and kill those still breathing, he remembered what the Orb said, if on any day, less than five beings die, the game will end and everyone loses. Thus today had been saved, but there was only an hour left until mid-night, and tomorrow.

Ldfo made his way into the Forest, and started heading towards the desert as he had yet to check there, and had spent most of yesterday in the forest and city. Hours passed as the Elite made his way into the Desert, and hours more until he gave up his search in the desert, only finding three dead bodies, when he caught a glimpse of light, from the rising sun on a figure in the distance near the forest edge. Ldfo, now unsure whether to be afraid of the fight he’d sought or not, stayed still for a while, before his honour won the better of him, and Ldfo made his way towards the gleaming light.

G23 could barely make out the speck in the distance, but decided he may as well check it out, and watched it grow larger, before it’s blue tint became obvious and G23 sprinted for the Elite, only to stumble in the sand. As the two neared, the Spartan came to a halt, aiming his Battle-rifle for the Elite’s head, only to receive several shots from Ldfo’s carbine, taking off half his shield. Ldfo continued to near the Spartan, firing as he ran, G23 unable to adjust his sights properly from all the gun-fire streaming past him, until the Elite neared a range he could shoot without the scope, and the Spartan fired several shots into the Elites gut. The shots hit the Elite whilst he was sprinting full-pelt, causing Ldfo to stumble and roll forwards, as the Spartan lowered his gun, allowing the Elites two bottom jaws to land perfectly balanced ontop of G23’s rifles barrel. The Spartan smiled as he pulled the Trigger. One of Ldfo’s mandibles landing on his helmet, the Spartan shook it off, as he felt himself lifted into the air, the glowing orb materializing before him.

“Congratulations SPARTAN-G23, you have made your maker proud, and you will be made immortal, as the first winner of Halo Fanon: Survival of the Fittest”